A video of US President Donald Trump mimicking his conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided the Congress fresh ammunition to target the BJP government at the Centre on Wednesday over ties with Washington.
Speaking at the House GOP Member Retreat, Trump claimed that Modi had personally appealed to him about the steep tariffs imposed by Washington on Delhi over its purchase of Russian oil.
“Prime minister Modi came to see me, ‘Sir, may I see you please’. Yes,” Trump said, adding that the two leaders shared a “very good relationship.”
“He’s not that happy with me because you know they’re paying a lot of tariffs now because they’re not doing the oil, but they are, they’ve now reduced it very substantially, as you know, from Russia,” Trump said.
Trump has imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on goods from India, including a 25 per cent levy linked to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian crude. A section of analysts, however, believe that the steep tariffs are a bargaining tool and pressure point in the ongoing trade negotiations between the two countries.
Trump also said India had been waiting for five years for Apache helicopters, adding, “We’re changing it. We’re changing it. India ordered 68 Apaches.”
The remarks drew sarcastic responses from the Congress leadership, with leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi mocking Modi with a video.
“Farq samjho, sir ji [Understand the difference, sir]!” he wrote, alongside the clip, an old video of himself, using it to draw a contrast between the current government and the leadership of prime minister Indira Gandhi during the 1971 war.
In the video, Rahul alleged that Modi had “surrendered” after a call from Trump during the India-Pakistan military confrontation in May last year.
The Congress leader contrasted that with what he called Indira Gandhi’s refusal to yield to US pressure in 1971 when Washington deployed its Seventh Fleet in the Bay of Bengal. “This is the difference,” Rahul said in the video.
The Congress’s attack was also amplified by party general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, who also shared Trump’s comments and mocked the arc of Modi-Trump optics over the years.
“From Namaste Trump to Howdy Modi to Donald bhai and now this. What next?” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Earlier this week, the Congress had taken aim at the government after Trump warned that Washington could raise tariffs on India “very quickly.”
