New Delhi, March 15 The Congress said on Sunday that the Chabahar port, now no longer "on the horizon" for India, is the second "strategic setback" to the country's diplomacy in Central Asia after the closure of its air force base in Ayni in Tajikistan.
Criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh alleged that continuity in governance is a fundamental reality that the "self-absorbed" PM never acknowledges.
Starting in the late 1990s, India began exploring the possibility of investing in Iran's Chabahar port as part of a strategy involving cooperation between India, Afghanistan, and Iran, Ramesh said on X.
"Finally, after attending the 16th Non-Aligned Summit in Tehran, Dr. Manmohan Singh gave a fresh impetus to these plans, and in May 2013, the Union Cabinet approved an investment of USD 115 million to begin with in Chabahar. It is worth noting that this decision was made even as India was taking major steps to implement the India-US nuclear agreement, which had been signed in October 2008," he said.
Subsequently, in October 2014, the Modi government, as it is often prone to do, repackaged Dr. Singh's Chabahar initiative and presented it as part of Prime Minister Modi's vision, he said.
"There was no allocation for Chabahar in the 2026/27 Budget. Does this mean that India has withdrawn or that its investment commitments for the time being have been fulfilled?" the Congress leader said.
"In any case, Chabahar, which is about 170 kms west of Pakistan's Gwadar port, built by China, is now no longer on the horizon. This is a second strategic setback to India's diplomacy in Central Asia, coming after India's closure of its air force base in Ayni near Dushanbe in Tajikistan," Ramesh said.
In a departure from the past, India has not allocated any funds for the Chabahar port project in its Union Budget.