The US Sank a Warship Leaving India's Own Naval Exercise. India Said Nothing.

On March 4, a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka. Eighty-four crew members died. It was the first US submarine kill since World War II.

The ship was returning from MILAN 2026, India's own multilateral naval exercise at Visakhapatnam. The Indian Navy had hosted the Dena. Indian sailors had walked its decks. Indian officers had posed for photographs with its crew. Days later, the crew was dead, killed by India's strategic partner using weapons that India's defense budget partly depends on.

India said nothing.

Not a condemnation. Not a statement of concern. Not even a pro forma expression of regret that a vessel returning from Indian waters had been sunk in international shipping lanes. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri signed a condolence book. That was it.

Al Jazeera's headline: "US sinking of Iranian warship blew hole in Modi's 'guardian' claims." The Diplomat ran competing analyses: "Why India Is Right to Support the US and Israel" versus "Iran War and India's Diplomatic Failures." The Wire published: "The Cost of Capitulation."

Modi addressed both houses of Parliament on March 23, comparing the crisis to COVID-19 in terms of required national preparedness. He warned the war "may not be short-lived." His MEA "expressed concerns and requested all three nations for a ceasefire." But India co-sponsored UNSC Resolution 2817 condemning Iran's attacks on Gulf states, placing itself firmly in the US-Israel camp on the one vote that counted.

Non-alignment didn't die in a dramatic confrontation. It drowned quietly in the Arabian Sea, in the silence between a hosted warship and a condolence book.

What's the LPG crisis doing to ordinary Indians?

Ninety percent of India's LPG imports transit the Strait of Hormuz. Prices surged 60-144 rupees per cylinder. Black market rates hit 4,000 rupees per cylinder, four times the subsidized price. Gujarat's ceramic industry suspended production entirely. Amazon reported a 30x surge in induction stove sales. The government authorized 48,000 kilolitres of emergency kerosene and allowed restaurants to use biomass fuels.

"Lockdown in India 2026" trended number one on Google after Modi's parliamentary address. Shia Muslim protests erupted nationwide on March 1, across Bihar, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. The government blocked social media accounts of several news outlets. The interceptor crisis consuming Gulf air defenses makes the shipping lanes even more dangerous.

Despite the mine warfare that closed Hormuz by 94%, India secured ship-by-ship transit for four LPG carriers in two batches (March 14 and March 23), roughly 185,000 tonnes total. Each transit was individually negotiated with Iran, with Indian Navy vessels escorting through the strait. Twenty-seven Indian merchant vessels remain stranded on either side of Hormuz with 600+ seafarers aboard. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar confirmed: "no blanket arrangement" exists.

India's strategic petroleum reserve covers approximately 9.5 days at government-only levels, or 74 days including refinery stocks and other storage. A fourth SPR is under construction in Odisha. But crude oil isn't the acute vulnerability. LPG is. And 90% of LPG comes through the waterway that India can't secure and won't help open.

How did Pakistan outmaneuver India?

Pakistan offered to host US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad. PM Sharif called both Trump and Pezeshkian. Army Chief Munir, whom Trump calls "my favourite field marshal," spoke directly with the president. Pakistan deployed air defense systems to Saudi Arabia under the SMDA.

India's Congress party called Pakistan's mediation role a "severe setback." The criticism stings because it's accurate. Pakistan, with a fraction of India's economic and military power, positioned itself as the indispensable mediator while India (BRICS chair in 2026, aspiring permanent Security Council member, self-proclaimed bridge between East and West) watches from the sidelines with a condolence book.

India's UNSC co-sponsorship of Resolution 2817 (condemning Iran's attacks on Gulf states) undermined whatever mediator credibility New Delhi might have claimed. You cannot simultaneously vote to condemn one party and then offer to mediate between them. Pakistan made no such mistake. It voted for neither side's resolution while offering its territory for talks.

The Chabahar port waiver expires April 26, 31 days away. The US declined to extend it beyond April. Trump warned that any country doing business with Iran faces 25% tariffs. India informed the US Treasury it intends to "wind down all activities." The port that was supposed to give India a non-Pakistan route to Central Asia is being abandoned under American pressure during the war that India won't oppose.

Colonel Douglas MacGregor told Tucker Carlson's podcast that his "personal preference" would be for Trump to "call Prime Minister Modi in India" as the ideal mediator, citing India's simultaneous friendship with Iran, growing US partnership, and Israeli defense ties. Instead, Pakistan got the call. India got the condolence book. Vance landed in Islamabad the next day.

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FAQ

Is India actually neutral in this war?

No. India co-sponsored the UNSC resolution condemning Iran. India blocked the film "The Voice of Hind Rajab." India said nothing about the IRIS Dena. India's three refinery companies are now buying Iranian oil under Trump's sanctions waiver, effectively profiting from the war while claiming neutrality. India's position is transparently pro-US-Israel on every metric except rhetoric.

Will India lose Chabahar?

The waiver expires April 26. If not renewed (and the US has indicated it won't be) India's decade-long investment in the Iranian port becomes stranded. The strategic loss is significant: Chabahar is India's only non-Pakistan route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Without it, India's connectivity to the region runs exclusively through Pakistan, which just positioned itself as the war's key mediator.

Could India still become a mediator?

Theoretically, if India reversed course: condemned the strikes, engaged Iran seriously, and used its BRICS chairmanship to propose a framework. Practically, the UNSC vote killed that option. Iran views India as aligned with its attackers. Pakistan filled the mediator vacuum. India's window for diplomatic entrepreneurship closed when it chose the condolence book over a phone call to Tehran.