The blame for US President Donald Trump’s additional 25 per cent tariff on India lies with the Narendra Modi government and not the Congress or the country’s first prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday.

“Your government is clueless how to deal with it. You can’t even blame this foreign policy disaster on the 70 years of Congress,” Kharge wrote in a strongly worded post on X (formerly Twitter).

Kharge held Modi singularly responsible for Delhi’s failure to negotiate a trade deal with Washington.

“You failed to negotiate a trade deal with the US. You had more than six months. Now Trump is intimidating and coercing us – but you keep quiet,” he wrote.

During his days as the Gujarat chief minister and later on as prime minister in the last 11 years, Modi and his most trusted lieutenant, Amit Shah, have often cited the follies of Nehru over a number of issues critical to the country, most importantly Kashmir.

“From the threats of 7th fleet to the sanctions of nuclear tests, we have navigated our relationship with the US with self-respect and dignity. Trump’s 50 per cent tariff comes at a time when our own diplomacy is disastrously dithering,” Kharge wrote.

Though he did not mention it, one such sanction following nuclear tests happened when the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was leading the NDA coalition in Delhi, the same coalition – with different partners – of which Modi is the leader.

“India’s national interest is supreme. Any nation that arbitrarily penalises India for our time-tested policy of strategic autonomy, which is embedded in the ideology of non-alignment, doesn’t understand the steel frame India is made of,” Kharge said.

The leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha drew a list of Modi’s own “follies” for the tariff missile launched by the US President, who has declared a global trade war. India and Brazil are the two countries with the highest tariff imposed by the US.

On Wednesday night, Trump announced an additional 25 per cent tariff as penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of oil from Russia.

“You kept mum when Trump claimed that he brokered the ceasefire. He has claimed at least 30 times and counting,” wrote Kharge. “On November 30, 2024, Trump had threatened to impose a 100 per cent tariff on BRICS nations. PM Modi was sitting there, visibly smirking, while Trump declared BRICS dead.”

Sharing statistics of India’s export volume with the US, Kharge said the tariff hike would hit several key sectors.

“India’s exports to the US amounts to about Rs. 7.51lakh crore (2024). A blanket 50 per cent tariff means an economic burden of Rs. 3.75 lakh crore. Our sector like MSMEs,, agriculture, dairy engineering goods, gems and jewellery, drug formulations and biologicals, petroleum products and cotton made clothes shall be hurt the most,” Kharge said.

He also accused Modi of not offering protection to these sectors in the union budget.

“Trump has been planning “reciprocal tariff” since months now. We all knew about it. You did nothing in the union budget to soften the blow on our key sectors such as agriculture, MSMEs and various industries,” he said. “Your ministers have been talking about negotiating a trade deal with America for several months. Some of them even camped in Washington for several days.”