West Asia crisis: India’s foreign policy is “compromised”, considered a “universal joke”, says LoP Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi criticizes Modi for referencing COVID-19 during the West Asia crisis, claiming it reflects a compromised foreign policy.

“India’s foreign policy is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal policy and is being considered as a universal joke,” Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday (March 24, 2026), even as he targeted Mr. Modi for comparing the conflict in West Asia and its fallout with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Gandhi, interacting with reporters in the Parliament premises, said the Prime Minister seemed to have forgotten what had happened during the pandemic and “the kind of tragedies that the country witnessed”.

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“Yesterday, [Mr. Modi] made an irrelevant speech. He is the Prime Minister of India, he must appear to be as the PM of India. He has no position [on the crisis],” the Opposition leader alleged. “It is the beginning — LPG, petrol, fertilizer, all these would pose a problem. Modi ji said COVID-like time is coming. He has forgotten what had happened then, how many people had died and what kind of tragedies had unfolded,” he added.

Mr. Gandhi said the country’s foreign policy becomes compromised if the Prime Minister is compromised.

“Our foreign policy is PM Modi’s personal foreign policy. You can see the results of this, everybody considers this a universal joke. [U.S. President] Donald Trump knows exactly what Mr. Modi can do and what Mr. Modi cannot do. If the PM is compromised, our foreign policy is compromised, it is obvious,” the Opposition leader said.