Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday made out a case for India walking away from a trade pact with the US if a fair deal is not possible, echoing Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's view that President Donald Trump's 50 per cent tariff is an attempt to bully India into an unfair deal.

In an opinion piece for NDTV, Tharoor wrote: "India is not a supplicant at the global table. We are a proud and self-respecting nation with legitimate interests and our own red lines. Our negotiators must be empowered to seek the best possible deal, but they must also be prepared to walk away if the terms are unreasonable.

"We cannot — and will not — sacrifice the livelihoods of 700 million Indians dependent on agriculture simply to appease foreign demands. A responsible partner nation would understand that, especially if it is a democracy driven by its own influential constituencies…. If a fair deal is possible, let us embrace it. If not, let us walk away with our dignity intact. There will always be other horizons to explore."

On Thursday, after Trump signed the executive order slapping India with an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports for buying oil from Russia, Rahul had posted on X: "Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail — an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal. PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people."

According to Tharoor, the recent US announcement to impose 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports "is not merely a trade manoeuvre, it is a moment of reckoning for India's economic diplomacy".

While echoing Rahul's views on Trump acting as a bully, Tharoor differed with the leader of the Opposition on his agreeing with the US President’s statement that the Indian economy was dead. "His disparaging remarks about the 'dead' Indian economy are the equivalent of a schoolyard bully telling a smaller child that 'your mother is ugly'. It is meant to demean and belittle, not to be taken literally. But we must take the US President seriously."

Tharoor also highlighted the US "hypocrisy" in penalising India for its energy trade with Russia while giving China a longer negotiating window despite Beijing buying more oil and gas from Russia.

He also drew attention to the fact that the European Union buys oil and gas from Russia but this has not been a factor in US-EU trade talks, adding that America itself imports about "$2 billion worth of fertilisers a year from Russia, pays over $1.4 billion annually for uranium hexafluoride and another $1.8 billion for palladium (needed for catalytic converters) from Russia".