Ram Madhav apologises for his remarks on India-US ties; Rahul hits out at RSS

Reacting to Madhav’s statement, Gandhi said on X, “Rashtriya Surrender Sangh. Farzi nationalism in Nagpur. Pure servility in the USA.” He also said that Ram Madhav “has only revealed Sangh’s true nature”.

Clarifying his stand on Friday, Madhav posted a statement on X: “What I said was wrong. India didn’t agree to stopping import of oil from Russia anytime. Also it vigorously protested 50% tariff imposition. I was trying to make a limited counterpoint to the other panelist. But factually incorrect. My apologies.”

In his remarks in the US, Madhav had flagged anxiety within the Indian diaspora over remarks such as “hell hole” and “laptop-wielding charlatans”.

The Congress then targeted the BJP-RSS, with party communication in charge, Jairam Ramesh, saying that “for all its pretentious nationalism, the RSS desperately seeks acceptance abroad”.

“Not content with hiring lobbyists (including those hired by Pakistan), its top ideologues were in the US recently on a PR offensive that fell flat and got caught in its own too-clever-by-half formulations,” said Ramesh.

In a statement, Ramesh said, “The ideologues were there when a Government of India delegation was also in Washington DC discussing the bilateral trade deal which in reality is a steal by the US.”