Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he questioned the government in the context of the conflict in West Asia, saying that its foreign policy today “is the result of the exploitation of a compromised individual”.
In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, “India’s foreign policy emerges from the collective will of our people. It should be rooted in our history, our geography, and our spiritual ethos based on Satya and Ahimsa.”
“What we are witnessing today is not policy. It is the result of the exploitation of a compromised individual,” he said takihng a swipe at the government.
The Gandhi scion remarks came soon after the United States granted Indian refiners a 30-day waiver to buy Russian oil stranded at sea amid the conflict in West Asia.
The White House had said that the punitive tariff was being withdrawn as India had committed to stop “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil”.
The Congress also shared a video of Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha from February 11, when he had alleged that “India’s energy security was being compromised” with the US trade deal.
“The US will tell us who we can or cannot buy oil from – if it’s Russia or Iran, the US will decide,” Gandhi had said then. “But our Prime Minister will not decide.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also echoed Rahul Gandhi concerns, alleging that the US granting a 30-day waiver to India to buy Russian oil “clearly demonstrates Modi government is continuously cedeing diplomatic space”.
“This is the kind of language which is used for sanctioned states, and not India, who has been a responsible and an equal partner in global order,” Kharge said in a social media post.
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the decision to give the 30-day waiver to India was a short-term measure to keep oil supplies flowing globally amid disruptions because of the conflict.
The measure “will not provide significant financial benefit” to the Russian government because it only permits the trade of oil that is already stranded at sea, he added.