Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is only interested in ‘tareef’ and not concerned with tariffs, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Friday and wondered where is the PM’s “56-inch chest” is in dealing with US threats on the reciprocal tariff issue.
In an interview with PTI, Ramesh said the Congress will raise the issue of US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff threats during the upcoming second half of the Budget session and called for a bipartisan collective resolve to deal with the threats.
The Congress leader also alleged that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has been speaking like an American envoy and a spokesperson for that country.
“Our prime minister wants to hear only ‘tareef (praise)’. He is not concerned about tariffs. ‘Tareef kum, aur tariff pe baat kijiye (talk about the tariffs issue and less about your praise),” Ramesh said.
He said Trump is redoing the entire rules of international trade and asserted that the US President’s whole idea of reciprocal tariffs is “bizarre”.
“We have negotiated a tariff schedule. About 170 countries have negotiated a trade agreement which became the World Trade Organisation in 1995. It took about 10 years to negotiate. Now, Mr Trump comes up with his own bizarre notion of what constitutes international trade,” Ramesh said.
“‘You tariff, I tariff’, that is not the way international trade functions. These rules have been negotiated. The WTO is World Trade Organisation not World Trump Organisation,” he said.
Hitting out at the government over the manner in which illegal Indian immigrants were deported from the US, Ramesh said even small countries are raising their voice, but the prime minister stays mum.
“He should speak frankly…Trump is threatening a country like India. The prime minister talks about having a ’56-inch chest’, where is his ’56-inch chest’ now. Remember what Indira Gandhi told President (Richard) Nixon in November 1971? President Nixon and Henry Kissinger tried to defame India, but Indira Gandhi stood up and said ‘I will do what is in the interest of India’,” Ramesh recalled.
“It is a question of India’s interest. But our PM is doing ‘Namaste Trump’, ‘my good friend Trump’, he is busy hugging him. So this question (on tariffs) will be raised (in Parliament). We have raised the issue of Indian citizens,” he said.
The manner in which President Trump is targeting India is a “serious issue” and a matter of our sovereignty, Ramesh asserted.
He further claimed that the prime minister doesn’t break his silence in Parliament and sends External Affairs minister “who is like a spokesperson of the US”.
“The US does not have an ambassador and the external affairs minister talks like a US envoy,” Ramesh said.
