Amidst the ongoing tension in the Middle East, Congress is cornering the Modi government over Iran’s Chabahar port. Congress says that this port is no longer visible in India’s priorities and it is the second strategic blow to the country’s diplomacy after the closure of the Air Force base in Ayni, Tajikistan.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh targeted PM Modi by posting on social media. He said that continuity in governance is an essential reality which narcissistic Prime Ministers never accept. He said that in the late 1990s, India started exploring the possibilities of investment in Iran’s Chabahar port under the India-Afghanistan-Iran cooperation strategy. Ultimately, after participating in the 16th Non-Aligned Summit in Tehran, Dr. Manmohan Singh gave new impetus to these plans.
Continuity in governance is an essential reality that is never acknowledged by the self-obsessed Prime Minister.
Beginning in the late 1990s, India began to explore possibilities of making investments in Iran’s Chabahar port as part of an India-Afghanistan-Iran cooperation…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 15, 2026
What did Ramesh say by mentioning Manmohan Singh?
The Congress leader said that in May 2013, the Union Cabinet had initially approved an investment of US$ 115 million in Chabahar. It should be remembered that this decision was taken at a time when India was taking major steps to implement the India-US nuclear deal signed in October 2008. He said that after this, in October 2014, as it has always done, the Modi government presented Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Chabahar initiative in a new way and described it as a part of Prime Minister Modi’s vision.
‘No allocation made for Chabahar’
Jairam Ramesh further said that no allocation was made for Chabahar in the budget of 2026-27. Does this mean that India is out of it or its investment commitments have been fulfilled for now? He further said that this means that Chabahar, located about 170 kilometers west of Pakistan’s Gwadar port, built by China, is no longer among India’s priorities.
He further said that this is the second strategic blow to India’s Central Asian diplomacy after the closure of the Indian Air Force base at Ayni near Dushanbe in Tajikistan. India, in a move different from the past, did not allocate any funds for the Chabahar port project in its Union Budget.
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