Opposition leaders said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on Indian imports from 25% to 50% indicated a "abysmal failure" in diplomacy by the Narendra Modi-led Union government.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on social media, “While his [Trump’s] tariff and penalty actions are simply unacceptable, the fact remains that they also reflect the abysmal failure of Modi’s personalised and headline-grabbing style of huglomacy”.
Recalling former Prime Minister Indira Ramesh recalled Gandhi’s stance against US pressure in the 1970s and stated, “Instead of defaming, distorting, and denigrating her, Modi should shed his ego – if indeed that were possible – and take inspiration from the manner in which she stood up to the USA”.
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said the tariff hike was "economic blackmail" and a clear attempt to compel India into agreeing to an unjust trade pact. "PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Gandhi claimed that Modi's incapacity to confront Trump derives from the ongoing US probe into the Adani Group, which is led by business magnate Gautam Adani.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress chairman, stated that any nation that "arbitrarily" penalises India for its "time-tested policy of strategic autonomy, which is embedded in the ideology of non-alignment, doesn’t understand the steel frame India is made of”.
Noting that India's national interest is paramount, Kharge stated that Trump's tariffs arrived at a time when the country's "own diplomacy is disastrously dithering", Scroll.in reported.
Kharge said the prime minister "kept mum" when Trump claimed to have arranged the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May. Trump has consistently claimed that he helped India and Pakistan resolve their four-day crisis in May.
The US president has also claimed that he put pressure on both countries to support the ceasefire by threatening to cut off trade. New Delhi has disputed Trump's claims. Kharge also said that Trump had been considering "reciprocal tariffs" for some months.
“We all knew about it,” he said. “You [Modi] did nothing in the Union Budget to soften the blow on our key sectors such as agriculture, MSMEs [Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises] and various industries.”
The Congress chief added: “You failed to negotiate a trade deal with the US…Now Mr Trump is intimidating and coercing us – but you keep quiet.”
He said that India’s exports to the US amounted to about Rs 7.5 lakh crore in 2024.
“A blanket 50% tariff means an economic burden of Rs 3.75 lakh crore,” Kharge said. “Your govt is clueless how to deal with it. You can’t even blame this foreign policy disaster on the 70 years of Congress.”
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien took a sharp dig at the prime minister, questioning how he would respond to what O’Brien referred to as a “50% Trump tariff.” He also suggested that the Modi-led coalition was intentionally disrupting Parliament proceedings to avoid accountability over the issue.
CPI(M) leader MA Baby condemned the steep tariff hike, describing it as both “unilateral” and “illegal.” He urged the Indian government not to yield to pressure from the United States and to strongly defend the country’s economic interests.
The criticism follows former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order imposing an additional 25% duty on Indian imports in response to India’s purchase of Russian oil.
This move pushes the total U.S. tariff on Indian goods to 50%. The additional tariffs, part of a broader policy targeting nations without bilateral trade deals with Washington, are set to come into effect in 21 days.