File photo: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said PM Narendra Modi‘s silence in the wake of “conflict” and the sinking of an Iranian warship showed that the PM had “surrendered strategy sovereignty”. The opposition party also slammed govt for “undoing” the foreign policy painstakingly built over the last seven decades.Rahul said the world had entered a volatile phase and “stormy seas” lay ahead, with oil supplies and 40% of Indian imports transiting through the Strait of Hormuz under threat. “The conflict has reached our backyard, with an Iranian warship sunk in the Indian Ocean. Yet the PM has said nothing. At a moment like this, we need a steady hand at the wheel. Instead, India has a compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy,” he said.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the PM’s silence after the sinking of the Iranian ship that was India’s guest showed “Modi government’s reckless abdication of India’s strategic and national interests”. He also questioned the “absence” of maritime rescue and relief when 38 Indian-flagged commercial ships along with 1,100 sailors were stuck in the conflict-hit region.He said the government had also not made public the plan to deal with rising oil prices and limited reserves, especially after agreeing with the US to stop import from Russia. One crore Indians were in Gulf region countries and there were desperate messages from medical students seeking help, he said. “Clearly, Modi’s surrender is both political and moral. It demeans India’s core national interests and destroys our foreign policy carefully built and followed by successive governments over the years,” Kharge said.