After US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 25 percent tariff on India, the Congress on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he once talked about the top (tomato, tomato, onion, potato) challenges in prices, but the country is now facing political challenges arising from CAP (China, America, Pakistan).
Congress Communications in -charge General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that President Trump is pressurizing India.
In an X post, Ramesh wrote, “Since May 10, he has claimed that he had stopped Operation Sindoor. These claims were made in four different countries. On 18 June, he hosted lunch of lunch of Pakistani Army Chief and Pahalgam terror attacks at the White House.”
He said, “On July 30, he imposed 25% tariff on American imports from India and also fined India’s oil and defense procurement from Russia. In addition, at least six Indian companies were banned due to relations with Iran.”
Ramesh said that on July 30, Trump also announced that the US would help Pakistan in the discovery and development of its oil and gas reserves. He said that this announcement is in addition to their full support to Pakistan to get financial assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Ramesh said, “Prime Minister Modi once talked about the top (tomato, onion, potato) challenge in prices. Now India has to deal with the political challenge arising out of CAP (China, America, Pakistan).”
The Congress leader said, “He (Modi) has invested a lot in his personal friendship with President Trump, as he had earlier done with President Xi. Both now have a full glimpse of the person who can be easily controlled by taking advantage of his huge ego and self-fascination.”
The comment came a day after the US President’s announcement of 25 percent tariff on all goods coming from India from August 1. Apart from this, India will also be fined unspent on purchasing Russian crude oil and military equipment.
This announcement is being seen as a strategy to pressurize New Delhi to accept America’s demands, which has entered into a recent times with a favorable trade agreements with major partners such as Japan, Britain and European Union.
In a post on social media, Trump described India’s trade policies as “extremely rigid and unpleasant”. Trump wrote, “Everything is not right! So India will have to pay 25 percent tariffs from August 1 and a fine for the above.”
The penalty was imposed because India has made huge purchases of oil and military equipment from Russia. India is the first country on which Trump has fined Russian imports. Earlier, he had imposed high tariffs on China, but did not impose any fine despite being the largest oil importer in Beijing Russia.
On Wednesday, opposition parties criticized the government for tariffs and fines on Indian imports by the US and said that Prime Minister Modi’s friendship with the US President has no meaning.
Ramesh had said that Modi should take inspiration from former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and stand before the President of America.
