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narendra modi
'Like an Obedient Servant': Indian Opposition Blasts Modi's Response to US Killing of Sailors
One Indian politician called President Donald Trump "a cowardly, cold-blooded murderer" and vowed he "will be held accountable for the Indian lives lost."
Jun 15, 2026
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking heat from his political opponents for his response to the deaths of three ship workers who were killed in the Gulf of Oman last week by US forces as part of President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran.
Fury in India has only grown over the past few days as the US has refused to apologize for the deaths of the three men, who were killed by missile strikes as they were working aboard commercial oil tankers.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition National Congress Party, took to social media on Sunday to blast Modi, leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for remaining "silent" over the killing of the sailors by the US.
"Just days after the murder of three Indian sailors in American attacks—no remorse, no apology," wrote Gandhi, who accused Modi and his allies of behaving "like an obedient servant" by not confronting the Trump administration over the incident.
Indian politician Arvind Kejriwal, who previously served as the chief minister of Delhi, vowed that Trump "will be held accountable for the Indian lives lost," going so far as to call the US president "a cowardly, cold-blooded murderer."
"It is unfortunate that PM Modi remains silent," Kejriwal added, "but soon, India will have a strong prime minister who will make you pay for your misdeeds."
Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor took aim at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for emphasizing, in the wake of the killings, that all ships operating around the Strait of Hormuz "should immediately comply with orders from US forces" or else risk becoming targets.
"Deeply shocking to read this official US statement, which contains absolutely no expression of regret or condolence for the loss of innocent Indian lives," wrote Tharoor. "How can a 'friend' and strategic partner be so deeply insensitive?"
Tharoor added that "practically every merchant ship navigating these crucial waters has Indian crew on board," and asked whether they are "all considered fair fame for US missiles now?"
The US Central Command claimed last week that the ship where the three slain Indian crew members worked "repeatedly refused to comply with directions from American forces," after which US aircraft "fired precision munitions into the ship's engine room."
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DOJ Reportedly Set to Drop Fraud Charges Against Billionaire After He Hired Trump Attorney
"The way to avoid fraud charges under the Trump administration is to hire Trump's personal lawyer and engage in bribery," said one critic.
May 14, 2026
The US Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to drop charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani shortly after he hired one of President Donald Trump's personal lawyers to represent him.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the DOJ—now headed by former Trump attorney Todd Blanche—is working on ending its case against Adani, who was indicted in November 2024 along with two colleagues for alleged conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud, among other charges.
The Times noted that the DOJ's reversal came after Adani hired a legal team headed by attorney Robert Giuffra Jr., who is currently leading efforts to overturn Trump's 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records.
According to the Times, Giuffra's work for Adani "culminated in a previously unreported meeting last month at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington" that included an offer that "if prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr. Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs."
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the DOJ could announce it's dropping charges against Adani "as soon as this week," and added that the Securities and Exchange Commission "is also moving to settle a parallel civil fraud case it brought against Adani and others in November 2024."
The DOJ alleged that Adani, whom Forbes estimates is worth at least $82 billion, "orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars," and then subsequently lied about the scheme to secure funding from US investors.
Given Trump's past pardons of white-collar criminals—including a cryptocurrency magnate who helped boost the value of the president's personal meme coin—some observers were quick to label the DOJ's move to drop charges against Adani an act of corruption.
University of Arkansas economist Jeremy Horpedahl commented that the Adani case shows that "the way to avoid fraud charges under the Trump administration is to hire Trump's personal lawyer and engage in bribery."
Manish Sharma, leader of the Indian Youth Congress, suggested Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also involved in the effort to get charges dropped for Adani, a longtime political ally.
"Perfect timing, just months after Modi signed that one-sided trade deal with Trump," wrote Sharma. "Quid pro quo delivered: Compromised PM sells out Indian interests, Trump admin returns the favor to Modi’s favorite billionaire."
Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, criticized the New York Times for describing the quid pro quo proposed by Giuffra on behalf of his client as an "unusual offer."
"'UNUSUAL OFFER??' No, headline writers," wrote Mystal, who then suggested a more accurate headline: "Charges Dropped Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Bribery, After Offering Trump A Bribe."
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'Cowardly and Despicable': Hegseth Condemned for Sinking of ‘Defenseless’ Iranian Ship
"If the United States is at war, then Pete Hegseth is a war criminal. If the United States is not at war, then Pete Hegseth is a murderer."
Mar 05, 2026
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday was condemned for his boasts on Wednesday about sinking an Iranian military ship after allegations emerged that it was "defenseless" at the time it was torpedoed in international waters by a US submarine.
Military.com reported Thursday that the Iranian ship had been departing from a biennial multinational naval training exercise that it had been invited to participate in by the Indian government.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far remained silent on the US attack on the ship, but other politicians in India delivering sharp condemnations.
According to the Times of India, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tore into Modi for not speaking up after the US torpedoed a boat that his government had invited into its waters.
"The conflict has reached our backyard, with an Iranian warship sunk in the Indian Ocean," Gandhi said. "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."
In a social media post, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said there was no way that the Iranian ship could have been perceived as any kind of military threat.
"I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition," he wrote. "It was defenseless... The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind."
Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim noted that, in addition to striking what appears to have been a defenseless boat, the US also didn't help rescue any of the shipwrecked men who were aboard the vessel.
"The Sri Lanka Navy was left to pull the dead bodies from the water," Grim commented. "I am hard pressed to think of any other nation throughout history that would do something so cowardly and despicable. We are genuinely in a league of our own, and American media—mostly shrugging off the bombing of a girls school and acting as if carpet bombing Tehran is a normal military tactic—is deeply complicit."
Author Bruno Maçães also pointed to the decision to leave the shipwrecked crew at sea as an act of historic depravity.
"Really quite extraordinary that the US bombed an Iranian ship and then left the surviving sailors to drown," Maçães wrote. "There are many many accounts of the Nazis or Imperial Japan saving survivors at sea. I see we have now dropped below that level."
Mohamad Safa, executive director of PVA Patriotic Vision, an international multilateral organization with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, said that the US attack on the Iranian ship constituted either a war crime or straight-up murder.
"What Pete Hegseth ordered the military to do violates international law," he wrote. "The Iranian ship was near Sri Lanka, in international waters outside the combat zone and on a training exercise. Under the Geneva Conventions, you are obligated to rescue the crew of a ship that you sink during war. Abandoned any survivors and leaving them to drown is illegal and a war crime."
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