New Delhi, March 3 -- As West Asia plunges deeper into turmoil following the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei in US-Israel strikes, India's political landscape has erupted into a sharp debate over whether New Delhi's calibrated silence is strategic diplomacy or a troubling abdication.

The Congress and the BJP on Tuesday locked horns over the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's stance, with the Gandhi family asserting India's long-standing foreign policy doctrine of balance and non-alignment.

Terming New Delhi's response an "abdication" rather than neutrality, the Congress demanded moral clarity and parliamentary discussion, while the BJP countered Sonia Gandhi's stance as "incorrect,...