New Delhi: The Congress and other opposition parties on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over imposition of 27 per cent reciprocal tariff on India by the US and said it’s time that the government “develop a spine” and start standing up for the country’s interest.
Leading the charge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said tariffs imposed by the US are going to “completely devastate” the Indian economy, particularly sectors like the auto industry, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
The government of India must give answers as to what it is doing about the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on India, he demanded while speaking in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.
“Somebody once asked Indira Gandhi ji — ‘In the matter of foreign policy you lean left or you lean right’, and Indira Gandhi ji answered ‘I don’t lean left or right, I stand straight. I am Indian and I stand straight’,” Gandhi said.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament complex, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also took potshots at Prime Minister Modi, saying the imposition of additional tariff on India by the US shows that US leadership is a businessman and “our customer” fell into his trap.
“Their friendship of hugging, laughing, ‘once again Trump’ slogan shows that America is a businessman and our customer got trapped,” he said.
“We will issue a detail statement on behalf of the party on this issue,” Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said.
When asked, Congress MP Manish Tewari said the imposition of additional tariff is a “complete failure” of the negotiations between the government of India and the Trump administration.
“America has gone ahead and done what it wanted to do. Coupled with that you have the unfortunate situation where the visas of Indian students are being cancelled en masse. The government of India is not raising its voice,” he told PTI in Parliament complex.
“It’s time the government develop a spine and start standing up for Indian interests and Indian people,” he added.
Asked for comment, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said India is an independent country with an “independent foreign policy” and it will not come under anybody’s pressure.
“India is the world’s fifth largest economy. The country has implemented measures for self-reliance and self-employment. It is now moving ahead firmly. If a country is framing its policy, then India will also frame its policy,” he told PTI in Parliament complex.
The US has announced additional 27 per cent import duties on India saying New Delhi imposes high tariffs on American goods, as the Donald Trump administration aims to reduce the trade deficit and boost manufacturing.
Though the move is expected to impact India’s exports of certain sectors to the US, experts say that India is better-placed than its competitors, including Bangladesh (37 per cent), China (54 per cent), Vietnam (46 per cent) and Thailand (36 per cent) which face increased levies.
Samajwadi Party MP Rajiv Rai took a dig at Modi over imposition of reciprocal tariff and said the country’s “credibility and strength” does not increase by “having one-sided love and calling someone a friend”.
“Modi will have to reply why the US is mistreating India,” he told PTI when asked for comment.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghosh hit out at the Modi government on the issue and said it will have its adverse impact on key sectors in India like textiles engineering and gems and jewelleries as well as on the fate of lakhs of people employed in these sectors.
“This a huge challenge for the Indian economy. Modi government is engaging in politics of destruction, politics of photo opportunity. The government should make a statement on how they intend to respond to this tariff war unleashed by President Donald Trump,” she told PTI.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed the imposition of tariff as “disturbing” and said it will affect “some of India’s exports” to the US which will “perhaps” become less competitive.
“The truth of the matter is as far as we are concerned, it’s one of the few major economies with which we have a positive trade balance. We are exporting (goods) worth about USD 74 billion to them and the export balance in our favour is about USD 45 billion. It’s not a small amount. If that goes down significantly, for naturally, it will affect our economy a bit,” he told PTI.
Tharoor said there is about a nine-month window to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the US.
“I think we have to see what kind of negotiations our people are able to conduct and how best we can use that window till September-October in order to get a more favourable outcome which may dilute some of these provisions,” he said.
“In the short term, the American consumers will also be hurt by all of this…The American consumers are going to have to pay more and that may perhaps create some pressure to reconsider the policy. Let’s see…,” he added.
