New Delhi: The Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday after Donald Trump imposed a 25-per cent tariff and penalties on Indian imports and said his friendship with the US president meant little.
The opposition party also said Modi should take inspiration from former prime minister Indira Gandhi and stand up to the president of the United States.
“President Trump has slapped a tariff of 25 per cent plus penalty on imports from India. All that ‘taarif’ between him and ‘Howdy Modi’ has meant little,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
“Mr Modi thought that if he kept quiet on the insults that the US President has hurled on India — the 30 claims of stopping Op Sindoor, the special lunch for the Pakistan Army Chief whose inflammatory remarks provided the immediate backdrop to the brutal Pahalgam terror attacks, and US support for financial packages to Pakistan from the IMF and the World Bank — India would get special treatment at the hands of President Trump. Clearly that has NOT happened,” he said.
“He should take inspiration from Indira Gandhi and stand up to the US President,” the Congress leader added.
Congress MP Mallu Ravi said Trump is giving threats to the Indian government and has imposed a 25-per cent tariff on imports from India. He said this is not acceptable to India.
Another Congress MP, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy, said Modi claims that Trump is his best friend but the US president’s agenda was clear that he wanted to impose tariffs on India. He demanded that the government negotiate a trade deal with the US quickly as it will affect exports and the economy.
Trump has announced a 25-per cent tariff on India from August 1 amid signs of a stalemate in the ongoing negotiations between the two countries on a bilateral trade deal.
Announcing the measure, the US president listed India’s high tariffs, its procurement of “vast majority” of military equipment and energy from Russia as well as “obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers”.
India will be paying a “tariff of 25 per cent plus a penalty” from August 1, he said, adding that “we have a massive trade deficit with India”.
The US president, in a social media post, however, described India as a “friend”.
