India on Friday signalled its disapproval of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s outreach to jailed activist Umar Khalid and flagged concerns over immigration-police shooting a woman dead in Minneapolis, the ministry of external affairs briefing also denying Washington’s account of stalled trade negotiations with Delhi.
Responding to Mamdani’s handwritten note expressing solidarity with Khalid, ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal underlined that public representatives must respect the independence of judicial institutions in other democracies.
“We expect public representatives to be respectful of the independence of the judiciary in other democracies,” Jaiswal said at the weekly media briefing Friday.
“Expressing personal prejudices does not behove those in office. Instead of such comments, it would be better to focus on the responsibilities entrusted to them.”
Mamdani, an Indian-origin politician, handed over the note to Khalid’s parents when they met him in the US last month.
Khalid has been in custody since September 2020 after being arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the February 2020 violence in northeast Delhi, which left 53 people dead and hundreds injured or displaced.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court denied the bail application of Khalid, a scholar whom the Delhi police have charged of being part of the conspiracy behind the riots. .
In a rare mention of an event in the US, Delhi expressed concern over the killing of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis.
The woman, identified as Renee Nicole Good, was shot dead earlier this week. US President Donald Trump has claimed the ICE agents acted in self-defence because the woman had driven her SUV at them, though some videos of the incident seem to contradict that version.
“We are closely following the developments,” Jaiswal said, adding that India was concerned given the presence of a large Indian community in the US, including students, professionals and others.
In the same briefing, Jaiswal rejected as “inaccurate” comments by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who said that the US-India trade deal failed to materialise last year because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call up President Trump.
“We have seen the remarks,” Jaiswal said. “India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13 last year.
“Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal.
“The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” he added.
Jaiswal said India remained interested in concluding a mutually beneficial agreement between the two “complementary economies”.
He also noted that Modi and Trump had spoken on eight occasions during 2025, covering a wide range of issues linked to the bilateral partnership.
Trade talks ran into a major roadblock after the Trump administration imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including an additional 25 per cent duty apparently linked to India’s purchase of Russian crude oil.
Many analysts believe the Russian oil bit is a pressure tactic in the trade negotiations. The US is India’s largest export partner.
Jaiswal also said India was closely monitoring a proposed US legislation that seeks to impose tariffs of up to 500 per cent on countries procuring Russian oil. India and China have been among the major buyers of Russian crude.
The bill has been sponsored by US Senator Lindsey Graham, who said earlier this week that President Trump had greenlighted the proposed measure.
“We are aware of the proposed bill and are closely following the developments,” Jaiswal said. “Our position on the larger question of energy sourcing is well known.
“In this endeavour,” he added, “we are guided by the evolving dynamics of the global market and by the imperative to secure affordable energy from diverse sources to meet the energy security needs of our 1.4 billion people.”