Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said the Trump administration’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods stemmed from New Delhi’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump’s claim of mediating the India–Pakistan ceasefire, not from India’s Russian oil imports.

Speaking at the University of Zurich, Rajan said: "Russian oil wasn't the issue... I think the central issue was more personalities, especially a personality in the White House and how they treated certain comments made by India after Trump claimed credit for stopping a conflict between India and Pakistan... Pakistan played it right... said that it was all because of Trump."

He added, "India tried to argue that the two countries had reached an agreement without Trump ... the truth is probably somewhere in between ... But the net effect was that India got 50 per cent tariffs, and Pakistan got 19 per cent. I understand that there was some comment about how your leader in Switzerland tried to explain the tariffs to Trump and that didn't go well... so we don't know what really happened between India and the US, but hopefully in the longer run sanity prevails on all sides and we all reach reasonable deals."

In August, Washington also doubled trade tariffs on Indian goods to 50 per cent as a punishment for India buying Russian oil.

In October, Trump claimed that Modi had pledged to stop buying oil from Russia.

When asked about India’s statement that it was unaware of any such conversation between Modi and Trump, the president responded: “But if they want to say that, then they'll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don't want to do that.”

Rajan’s remarks sparked debate online, with many users arguing that India acted according to its national interest rather than to placate global powers.

The comments came against the backdrop of Trump’s continuing claims that he single-handedly halted the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

Addressing supporters at a rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, he said: “In 10 months, I ended eight wars, including Kosovo (and) Serbia, Pakistan and India, they were going at it. Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia.… Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He has repeated this claim nearly 70 times since May.

A ceasefire was announced on May 10, following India’s Operation Sindoor that targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 civilians.

India has maintained that cessation of hostilities followed direct military-to-military communication after Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations contacted his Indian counterpart.

Although Pakistan initially disputed this version, it later acknowledged the outreach and even nominated Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his “decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis”.