"Congress prioritises anti-Govt, anti-India rhetoric" :::: Despite being in Sri Lanka’s SAR zone, Indian Navy launched search and rescue operations"

The strike at Iranian vessel occurred in international waters, approximately 40 nautical miles (about 74 km) off the coast of Sri Lanka near Galle. 

It is a different matter that the Congress party is "once again spreading blatant lies" and misinformation by attempting to blame the Indian government for the U.S. submarine strike on the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean. 

                      INS Tarangini of Indian Navy arrives in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

An Al Jazeera article on Friday, which titled "How US sinking of Iranian warship blew hole in Modi's 'guardian' claims" said that "India sees itself a security provider in the Indian Ocean. On Wednesday, it couldn't save even its own guest."

"This is nothing short of a desperate, politically motivated smear campaign that distorts facts to attack the government," says a BJP tweet.

Claims made by Congress are not just misleading, rather they are outrightly false designed to undermine India's sovereignty and diplomatic standing for their cheap political points.

Here are the undeniable facts that expose their narrative:

• The strike occurred in international waters, approximately 40 nautical miles (about 74 km) off the coast of Sri Lanka near Galle 

--- that is not in Indian waters and certainly not under India's jurisdiction or control.

- The incident reportedly took place around 250 nautical miles or more from India's coastline, which is well beyond India's territorial waters (12 nautical miles) or exclusive economic zone boundaries in this context.

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- Under established international maritime law (including UNCLOS), no country bears responsibility for incidents in international waters simply due to geographic proximity. 

The Indian Ocean is a vast shared space involving multiple nations and proximity does not equal accountability or control.

The hard facts:

Despite the incident being in Sri Lanka’s SAR zone, the Indian Navy promptly launched full search and rescue operations as soon as the distress call reached MRCC Colombo. 

It deployed a long-range maritime patrol aircraft within hours, kept another aircraft with air-droppable life rafts on standby, diverted INS Tarangini and sailed INS Ikshak from Kochi to continue the humanitarian search for missing personnel.

"Yet the Congress prioritises anti-government and anti-India rhetoric over truth, national interest and basic facts. This pattern of spreading lies to score points only weakens India's unified voice on the global stage," the Lotus party has stated.

"The Modi government continues to uphold India's strategic autonomy through principled diplomacy, without being dragged into baseless controversies manufactured by the Congress," it lamented. 

***

US Central Command says, “U.S. forces aren't holding back on the mission to sink the entire Iranian Navy. Today, an Iranian drone carrier, roughly the size of a WWII aircraft carrier, was struck and is now on fire.”

****  

Indian Navy's version :::   

** A distress call from IRIS Dena was received at the MRCC Colombo in the early hours of 04 March 26 as reported by the Sri Lankan Navy. 

** The ship was operating 20 NM West of Galle in the SAR region under Sri Lankan responsibility. 

*** Indian Navy promptly launched its SAR efforts commencing with a long-range maritime patrol aircraft at 1000 hr on 04 March 26 to augment the search efforts led by Sri Lanka. 

Another aircraft with air droppable life rafts was also kept standby for immediate deployment. 

INS Tarangini which was operating in vicinity was deployed for aiding the rescue efforts and arrived in search area by 1600 hr on 04 March 26. 

By this time SAR had been undertaken by Sri Lankan Navy and other agencies. INS Ikshak has also sailed from Kochi to augment the search efforts and continues to remain in the area to search for missing personnel as a humanitarian measure for ship wrecked personnel. 

Coordination with the Sri Lankan side on Search and Rescue efforts is ongoing.

ends