Economic blackmail, bid to bully India: Rahul Gandhi on Trump’s 50% tariffs

Earlier in the day, Gandhi had said in a post on X that “India, please understand: The reason PM Modi cannot stand up to President Trump despite his repeated threats is the ongoing U.S. investigation into Adani.”

“One threat is to expose the financial links between Modi, AA, and Russian oil deals. Modi’s hands are tied,” he said.

With Trump repeatedly claiming that he had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, which India has denied, Gandhi had targeted PM Modi in Lok Sabha during a debate on Operation Sindoor and challenged him to “show courage” and declare that Trump a liar if he was not speaking the truth.

On July 31, a day after Trump announced 25% tariffs for India, Gandhi, in response to Trump’s claim that the Indian economy was dead, said: “He is right, everybody knows this except the PM and the Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman). Everybody knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy. I am glad that President Trump has stated a fact.”

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.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 6, 2025

Analysing the possible effects of the drastic jump in tariffs, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, “If our total tariff reaches 50%, it will make our products unaffordable for many people in the US, especially when you look at these percentages, you have to compare them with the tariffs imposed on some of our competitors. I fear that if you look at countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, or even Bangladesh and Pakistan, where tariffs are lower than ours, ultimately people in the US won’t buy goods from us if they can get them cheaper elsewhere.”

He said that it means India “needs to diversify into those countries and markets that are interested in our offerings”. “Now we have a free trade agreement with the UK. We are talking to the European Union. There are many countries where we hope we can do this, but in the short term, this is definitely a setback,” he said.

Noting that Trump has hit India “hard and unjustly”, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh called for a comprehensive reset of India’s foreign policy. “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.” Ramesh said on X.

“India 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,” he said. —With PTI Inputs