New Delhi: When President Trump has advisers like Peter Navarro, he needs no enemies. During the Biden Presidency too, India was accused of being on the wrong side of history for not condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When asked by a journalist if India’s purchase of discounted Russian oil would constitute a violation of the US sanction, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki had replied in the negative (March 17, 2022). The former US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti told TV channels last month that Indian import of Russian oil didn’t violate the US sanctions, it rather helped stabilise international prices.
This position has been repeatedly stressed by the EAM Jaishankar, PNG Minister Hardeep Puri and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor. They have also shown a mirror to the US and the EU that after the imposition of the US sanctions on Russia, EU’s imports from Russia stood far higher than the value of Indian import of Russian oil. Strangely, the US was herself buying uranium, fertilisers and other items from Russia. And now the unthinkable: 55% of diesel imported by Ukraine came from India; obviously from the Russian oil imports by India. So, shouldn’t 25% penal duty imposed on India for importing Russian oil also be levied on China, the EU, Ukraine and the US? Evidently, the toxic utterances of Navarro are utterly illogical.
How does he dare to mount such a frontal personal attack on the Indian Prime Minister by calling the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”? No American President or European leader has, in the last 25 years, ever attacked any Indian Prime Minister by name. Is he speaking out of his hat? Or he is merely HMV?
His disparaging remarks against PM Modi for meeting the “rogue” leaders Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia in spite of being the leader of the largest democracy are condemnable; they betray his appalling ignorance. He needs to be reminded that his Boss has himself interacted with all these “rogue” leaders. He seems to imply that they aren’t rogue when Trump meets them, but they metamorphose into rogue when Narendra Modi meets them.
On 6 April 2017, Trump and his wife Melania hosted a dinner in honour of Chinse President Xi Jinping and his wife Mme Peng Liyan at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, at which the 5-year-old granddaughter of Trump, Arabella Kushner serenaded Xi and his wife with a popular Chinese song. Is this how the US President treats a rogue leader?
After threatening to obliterate North Korea from earth, Donald Trump met the North Korean Chairman, at Capella hotel in Singapore on 12 June 2018. Again on 30 June 2019, President Trump shook hands with Kim Jong Un and took 20 steps into North Korea, thus becoming the first American President to step on the North Korean soil. He organised an exhibition of photographs with Kim at the White House and proclaimed that he was in love with him. So much love for a rogue leader!
Following the 2016 Presidential election, some Democratic party leaders repeatedly accused Putin of having meddled in the election in the US. Even intelligence reports supposedly reached the same conclusion. But DJT gave the benefit of the doubt to Putin. Even the summit meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August 2025, while his country was still under sanctions was arranged at Trump’s initiative. He received Putin on the red carpet and addressed the Russian leader by his first name nearly ten times. But the wily former director of the KGB didn’t give anything in return.
Irresponsible and arrogant officials like Peter Navarro must be stopped from further damaging US-India strategic relationship so assiduously build by successive American Presidents and Indian Prime Ministers over 25 years lest it become totally irreparable. India isn’t Panama or Greenland. India withstood the naked show of US military might in 1971; she wasn’t intimidated. Severest sanction imposed by the US following India’s nuclear tests in May 1998 failed to deter India’s resolve.
With this historic backdrop, POTUS and Co shouldn’t harbour any illusion that they can browbeat India or bring her down on her knees. It will never happen. The Trump administration must not underestimate India’s political will, resilience, resourcefulness and genius to convert challenges into opportunities.
According to well-known economist, Surjit Bhalla, Trump tariffs aren’t an economic issue; it is purely a political issue; can be sorted out by diplomats through negotiations. Navarro says Indian tariffs cause job losses in US. Is he aware how many people have lost their jobs/livelihood in India on account of the 50% tariffs on garments, gems and jewellery, leather footwear, handicrafts, shrimps and other MSME products?
India has a trade surplus of US$43 billion with the US but she has a trade deficit of US$103 billion with China. If India were to emulate Trump, Modi shouldn’t have gone to the SCO summit, he should rather be threatening Xi with sanctions.
Instead of pressing the Indian government for opening up sectors which are political hot potatoes, why not give her an ultimatum to bring down the surplus to zero in the next 3 years? With purchase of defence requirements of Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, orders for aircraft by Indian airlines, substantial increase in oil and gas imports and exploring areas for collaboration under iCET and COMPACT, the current surplus can be reduced drastically. To please Trump, why not allow duty free import of Harley Davidson bikes and bourbon?
One disturbing question arises: with the tariff regime, does Trump want to balance trade or sabotage India’s economic advancement and cause political instability? His MAGA supporters should ask themselves: who is USA’s enemy: India? China? Russia? An honest answer can show the right path.
Gandhi inspired Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama and Barack Obama but never won a Nobel Prize. Donald Trump should continue bringing about peace wherever he can without hankering for the prize. That’s the niskama karma philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita.
* Surendra Kumar is a former Indian ambassador of India
