Congress MP Karti Chidambaram dismisses trade with Russia as reason behind tariff imposition

He dismissed the claim that tariffs were imposed because India trades with Russia, since the European Union and the US also deal with Moscow.

"I don't buy this for a minute that tariffs have been imposed on us because we trade with Russia. There is a far more sinister reason for this, and I believe that the Pakistan Army, through its commercial corporations, has a very strong commercial relationship, perhaps with the Trump administration. It's a fact that Field Marshal Munir is going to the US for the second time, which is unprecedented. There seems to be a very close tie between the Pak Army and the US establishment. As a fallout, this pressure is being put on India," Chidambaram told ANI.

Hitting out at Trump, Chidambaram said that the US president was "definitely" not acting as a friend of India.

"There is no friendship, and there is no back channel communication, but we need to negotiate. America needs us, and we need America. It's not easy for us to find customers immediately, and America needs a supply chain," he added.

Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday took a swipe at Prime Minister Modi amid chaos over the Trump administration doubling the tariff imposition on goods from India to 50 per cent, calling it a "foreign policy disaster".

He said that Trump's 50 per cent tariffs come at a time when Indian diplomacy is "disastrously dithering."

However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey appealed to the "140 crore Indians" to extend their support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and send a strong message of unity.

US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on August 6 imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from India. Trump cited matters of national security and foreign policy concerns, as well as other relevant trade laws, for the increase, claiming that India's imports of Russian oil, directly or indirectly, pose an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States.

Terming the United States' move to impose additional tariffs on India over its oil imports from Russia as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declared that New Delhi will take "all actions necessary to protect its national interests.

In further development, a senior United States Administration Official told ANI that there is simply "no comparison" between the hundreds of billions of dollars of growing Indian imports of Russian oil and the modest US imports of Russian goods.

In response to a question, the US official told ANI, "There is simply no comparison between the hundreds of billions of dollars of growing Indian imports of Russian oil, and the modest U.S. imports of Russian goods, which amount to less than 1% of the value of Indian imports". (ANI)