The Opposition parties on Wednesday projected the imposition of a 50 per cent US tariff on Indian imports as the failure of the Modi-Trump friendship, labelling the NDA government’s foreign policy as “superficial engagements of smiles, hugs and selfies”.

Harking back to Modi’s “Abki baar, Trump sarkar” slogan during the US presidential polls, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the punishing tariff imposed by the Prime Minister’s “dear friend” would lead to an estimated loss of ₹2.17 lakh crore across 10 sectors alone.

“A robust Foreign Policy needs substance and deft, but your superficial Foreign Policy engagements — smiles, hugs and selfies have hurt our interests,” Kharge posted on X, adding that the government had failed to secure a trade deal to cushion the country from the blow.

He explained how the steep tariff rate would severely impact cotton and shrimp farmers, as well as export-oriented sectors such as textiles, gems and jewellery, and diamonds. “Livelihoods of half a million shrimp farmers directly and another 2.5 million indirectly are at grave risk,” he said.

Kharge said around 500,000 jobs in the textile export sector and 1,50,000-2,00,000 jobs in the gems & jewellery sector would be at risk.

“Close to 1,00,000 workers involved in diamond cutting and polishing across the Saurashtra region have already lost their jobs since April,” he added.

He cited the Global Trade Research Initiative’s suggestion that almost 1 per cent of our GDP could be impacted, benefiting China.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the high US tariff had pushed exporters in Uttar Pradesh to the brink of “collapse” and accused the BJP government of failing to protect industries and jobs.

“Exporters are standing at the edge of disaster. Payment cycles have been disrupted, suppliers and vendors are distressed, and industries that sustain lakhs of families are paralysed,” he said.

“If the government does not act now, lakhs of exporters will be ruined, crores of people will become jobless, and unemployment in the state will spiral out of control,” he said, blaming the punitive US tariff on the Centre’s “failed foreign policy”.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose said: “Modi’s government is squarely responsible for failing to protect India’s exporters from the crushing impact of Trump Tariffs in an economy already facing an unemployment catastrophe.”

In an X post, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said: “It is unfortunate that the current US Administration has failed to understand the importance of the strategic relationship that it has invested in with India over several decades — two democracies that adhere to rules based order and international trade could only strengthen each other and the world, now the only ones benefiting of this unilateral tariffs are those forces antithetical to democracies and rule based order.”