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The Congress on Thursday launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over his engagement with US President Donald Trump at the G7 Summit, alleging failures in defending India’s strategic, economic and sovereign interests.
In a statement issued by the party’s foreign affairs department, it said that the PM could have taken the leverage of the event to assert India’s role in Global South.
“The Congress had hoped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would leverage the G7 Summit in France as an opportunity to assert India’s leadership role in the Global South and stridently defend India’s energy sovereignty, economic interests, and strategic autonomy. Instead, the Summit exposed a troubling gap between rhetoric and results,” the party said in the statement.
The grand old party accused Modi of failing to secure an Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions waiver that would have allowed India to continue importing Russian oil. “This is a missed opportunity, and further compounds the BJP government’s repeated capitulation on matters of India’s energy sovereignty (first by ending purchases of discounted oil from Iran and Venezuela, and then by scaling back imports from Russia),” said the statement, adding that it would burden Indians with higher fuel and consumer prices.
The party also criticised Modi for remaining silent while Trump repeatedly claimed credit for helping secure a ceasefire after Operation Sindoor.
According to the Congress, this could be interpreted either as a “tacit acceptance” of Trump’s assertion or an “unwillingness” to challenge it publicly. Such silence, it said, undermined India’s long-standing position against third-party mediation in bilateral matters.
The Congress further raised concerns over Trump’s offer of support for India’s defence, saying it could have “profound implications” for India’s strategic autonomy. It argued that any security commitment, particularly one not discussed in Parliament, could affect India’s relations with key partners. The party also took a swipe at the BJP over its past allegations of foreign interference in India’s affairs.
“The former [possibility] would amount to an unacceptable endorsement of interference in India’s internal affairs (a matter on which BJP owes the nation an explanation, given its repeated allegations of foreign interference in India),” said the statement. It further said that a possible security commitment by the US, unknown to the Parliament, would threaten India’s relations with key partners and its strategic autonomy.
The opposition party criticised Modi for not raising the deaths of three Indian sailors in a tanker attack in the Gulf of Oman and the “unlawful sinking” of the Iranian vessel Iris Dena. “Both incidents were direct affronts to India’s maritime interests, regional standing, and the principles of freedom of navigation and secure trade,” it said.
The Congress also accused Modi of failing to challenge developments that, in its view, “signal a downgrading of India’s strategic importance”, including changes in US strategic doctrine and the renaming of the US Indo-Pacific Command. It further objected to a US government map allegedly depicting Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as Pakistani territory, calling it “an affront to India’s territorial integrity”.
The party argued that India’s growing geopolitical isolation had allowed Pakistan to “rehabilitate its international standing” and “reposition itself as a credible interlocutor on the world stage”. It accused the BJP of displaying “strategic and intellectual inertia” in dealing with an increasingly US-aligned Pakistan.
“Finally, even though the Sangh’s functionaries myopically ask India to maintain strategic silence, the BJP government has severely hurt India’s geo-economic and geo-political interests. Despite attending the G7 and despite receiving medals (a misplaced priority that foreign powers capitalise on to maximise their self-interests), PM Modi has failed at achieving any meaningful technology transfer or defence engagements,” said the Congress.
It also remarked that Modi’s “unwillingness” to defend India’s interest and sovereignty as “worrying”, accusing Modi of failing to secure favourable terms in the US-India trade deal while the country continually faces “economic warfare.” “As the US President’s public proclamations of “friendship” with PM Modi have been complemented with continuous anti-India actions and rhetoric, PM Modi must not prioritise his “friendship” with the US President over Indian interests,” said the Congress.
It also said that the Indian diaspora continues to face racist attacks and curbs on immigration and visas. “We hope PM Modi and the BJP government remember that bilateral relations are between countries and not individuals. India’s interests must remain paramount, irrespective of who occupies the White House or South Block,” said the party’s statement.
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