Former Indian military officers, diplomats and analysts have described the United States’ sinking of an Iranian warship off the Sri Lankan coast on Wednesday as a “strategic embarrassment” to the Indian government and a “blow to its regional credibility”.
The warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a US submarine in international waters. At least 87 persons died in the incident and 61 were missing. The Sri Lankan Navy had rescued 32.
The US Department of War confirmed that it had attacked the ship. It also released footage of the torpedo hitting the frigate, resulting in an explosion.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday said that the warship, “a guest of India’s Navy”, had been struck without warning. “Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret [the] precedent it has set,” he said on social media.
New Delhi has not yet commented on the incident.
Former Indian Navy chief Arun Prakash on Wednesday told India Today that New Delhi “should convey our deep concern and displeasure” for bringing “maritime warfare to our doorstep without taking us into confidence”.
“To my understanding, even strategic autonomy needs to have some moral moorings and anchor,” the retired admiral told the news channel.
Prakash added: “This conflict is needless, open-ended, pointless and is going to bring nothing but grief and suffering to the whole world. And we don’t even know what it is for and when it is going to end.”
India must request the US that “hostilities should terminate at the earliest possible and keep the conflict away from our waters”, he said.
Sushant Singh, a former Army officer and a lecturer of South Asian studies at Yale University, said that the sinking of the IRIS Dena “just hours after it left Indian waters is a massive blow to New Delhi’s regional credibility”.
“In all likelihood, the Trump administration bypassed the Modi government entirely, launching a lethal submarine strike to expand the warzone without prior notice,” Singh said on social media.
He said that India’s non-negotiable priorities of protecting commerce and energy routes, avoiding getting entangled in the West Asia conflict and preventing “any normalisation of third‑party kinetic actions so close to its maritime periphery” have been challenged by the US Navy’s action.
Singh added that while the Iranian vessel was in international waters, it was returning from an Indian fleet review, through what is “definitely an area of India's influence”.
“That is why it crosses a fat line,” he said.
The Iranian warship had attended the International Fleet Review, which was held between February 15 and February 25 in Vishakhapatnam, where it had been docked alongside ships from several other countries.
“If the same ship was close to Chinese waters, and coming from a PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy] fleet review, would the US have dared to blow the ship out of the waters?” he asked. “The answer is no. But it does so for India, and that tells you all you need to know about the Modi government.”
Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao questioned India’s silence on the escalating conflict, saying that a country that “once championed international law” and restraint should not appear “tongue-tied” when war threatens an entire region.
“Strategic partnerships should not come at the cost of moral voice,” she said.
Former Indian diplomat Kanwal Sibal said that the spirit of the Milan naval exercise shared by the Iranian Navy had been “violated by this US action, more so as it occurred not far from India’s maritime periphery”.
The biennial exercise took place simultaneously with the International Fleet Review in February.
The exercise organised by the Indian Navy “aims to foster mutual understanding, trust and professional interaction” among navies to promote a “free, open, inclusive and rules-based maritime order”, Sibal said on social media.
“The purpose is to promote peace and stability in the maritime space,” he added.
On Thursday, Sibal said that the US “ignored India’s sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India’s invitation”.
“I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition,” the former diplomat said. “It was defenceless.”
Sibal said that “a word of condolence by the Indian Navy (after political clearance) at the loss of lives of those who were our invitees and saluted our president would be in order”.
Retired Major General Birender Dhanoa said on social media that SAGAR “just got a burial at sea with the sinking of IRIS Dena”.
“We were never the securers or guarantors for anyone in the IOR [Indian Ocean region],” Dhanoa added.
SAGAR refers to “Security and Growth for All in the Region”. The term is used by the Union government to describe India’s geopolitical framework of maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
Strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney said on Wednesday that the US sinking IRIS Dena in India’s maritime backyard was a “strategic embarrassment for New Delhi”.
He added that Washington had “effectively turned India’s maritime neighbourhood into a war zone, raising uncomfortable questions about India’s authority in its own backyard”.
The strike “violated the unwritten code of naval hospitality”, he said, adding that attacking a ship immediately after it “leaves a host’s waters is widely seen as a slight to that host”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “MAHASAGAR vision – positioning India as the Indian Ocean’s ‘preferred security partner’ – rests on the idea that New Delhi can convene cooperation and maintain stability in the region”, Chellaney said on social media.
The US strike has “shattered that image by demonstrating that a distant power can employ lethal force in India’s maritime backyard without coordination”, he added.
The Opposition has also criticised the Union government after the incident.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that Modi “has said nothing” about the incident.
“At a moment like this, we need a steady hand at the wheel,” he said. “Instead, India has a compromised PM who has surrendered our strategic autonomy.”
His party colleague Pawan Khera noted on Wednesday that the explosion occurred “at the edge of Indian waters” near Sri Lanka.
“Does India have no influence left in its own neighbourhood?” he asked. “Or has that space also been quietly ceded to Washington and Tel Aviv?”
Sharing a video on social media of the Iranian crew at the event in India, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said on Thursday that they “were our guests” who had been “invited by us”.
She said: “US submarine targeted their ship and killed them while they were returning home. But not a squeak from PM Modi. This cowardice is unacceptable.”
“PM Modi’s compromise is putting India to shame”, she added.
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