Soon after Trump announced a penalty of another 25 per cent on India for buying Russian oil, the former Congress president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not let Indian interests be overridden.
Photo : PTI
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said US President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods is “economic blackmail” to bully India into an unfair trade deal.
Soon after Trump announced a penalty of another 25 per cent on India for buying Russian oil, the former Congress president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not let Indian interests be overridden.
“Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail – an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal.
“PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people,” Gandhi said in a post on X.
Trump on Wednesday slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on goods coming from India as penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil, a move that is likely to hit sectors such as textiles, marine and leather exports hard.
Trump signed an executive order – Addressing Threats to the US by the Government of the Russian Federation – imposing the additional tariff over an above the 25 per cent levy which comes into effect from August 7.
After this order, the total tariff on Indian goods, barring a small exemption list, will be 50 per cent.
The Congress said the action is unjust and unacceptable, even as it hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his personalised and “headline-grabbing style of huglomacy” has been an “abysmal failure”.
Noting that US President Donald Trump has hit India “hard and unjustly”, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh called for a comprehensive reset of India’s foreign policy and said PM Modi should shed his ego and take inspiration from Indira Gandhi in the manner she stood up to the US’ “bullying” in the 1970s.
“Now President Trump, while still claiming to be a friend of Mr. Modi, has hit India hard and unjustly. While his tariff and penalty actions are simply unacceptable, the fact remains that they also reflect the abysmal failure of Mr. Modi’s personalised and headline-grabbing style of huglomacy,” he said in a post on X.
“India has stood up to the bullying of the US in the 1970s, especially under the Prime Ministership of Smt. Indira Gandhi. Instead of defaming, distorting, and denigrating her, Mr. Modi should shed his ego — if indeed that were possible — and take inspiration from the manner in which she stood up to the USA. India’s foreign policy and administration needs a comprehensive reset,” Ramesh also said.
Recalling past events under the Modi government, the Congress leader said the prime minister went to the US and attended a ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston in September 2019. “President Trump was also present and Mr. Modi broke with all tradition and declared ‘Ab ki Baar Trump Sarkar’,” he said.
In February 2020, Ramesh said, President Trump was hosted by Modi to a gala ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad and in February 2025, “much was made of the fact that Modi was amongst the earliest heads of government who met with President Trump in his second innings”.
Earlier, it was said that the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a front row seat at President Trump’s inauguration and was the first to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Congress general secretary said in a dig at the government.
“Mr. Modi wooed Elon Musk and his family as well, at a time when Mr. Musk was very close to President Trump. The wooing of Mr. Musk was part of Mr. Modi’s strategy to please President Trump.
“Mr. Modi has time and again flaunted his supposedly close friendship with President Trump. On Feb 14, 2025, he had shown off his knowledge of algebra by telling President Trump that MAGA + MIGA = MEGA,” the Congress general secretary said.
He said Prime Minister Modi has kept completely quiet even as President Trump has claimed 33 times that he intervened to bring about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.