Iran Israel War crisis: Rahul Gandhi slams Modi for Covid reference, says PM Modi has forgotten tragedies of that time

“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.

‘Compromised’

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.

Though the government is convening an all-party meeting on West Asia on Wednesday, Mr. Gandhi said he would not be able to take part as he has programmes to attend in election-bound Kerala.

“They have called an all-party meeting. There should be a debate, but you have made a structural mistake. You have destroyed the structure and that cannot be corrected. The PM cannot do it. I can give it to you in writing, the PM will do what America and Israel say. He will not work in the interest of India and its farmers, he will do as America and Israel say,” the Opposition leader said.

Pakistan’s ‘cosy’ Trump ties

Separately, the Congress also targeted the government over reports that Pakistan could act as a mediator between Iran and the United States. “If these reports are true, they represent a severe setback and rebuff to India – and it is all attributable to the self-styled Vishwaguru,” Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

Mr. Ramesh said that Mr. Trump had hosted Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House twice and had repeatedly embraced him. “The Pakistani establishment has developed a cosy relationship with President Trump’s immediate circle. Mr. Modi’s ill-advised visit to Israel, that ended just two days before the unprovoked U.S.-Israel aerial assaults on Iran began, will go down in our political history as a singularly disastrous choice – one that has made us retreat from a position where we could and should have mediated,” he added.