Indira Gandhi stood up to US, not huglomacy: Congress slams PM after Trump's tariff

The Opposition, led by the Congress, has lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi following Donald Trump's announcement of a 25 per cent additional tariff on Indian products, saying he should take a cue from Indira Gandhi's playbook on how to stand up to US bullying, instead of defaming her.

"India has stood up to the bullying of the US in the 1970s especially under the Prime Ministership of Smt. Indira Gandhi. Instead of defaming, distorting, and denigrating her, Mr. Modi should shed his ego--if indeed that were possible--and take inspiration from the manner in which she stood up to the USA. India's foreign policy and administration needs a comprehensive reset," the senior Congress leader tweeted.

After Trump's announcement of additional levies on Indian goods, now totalling 50 per cent, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh took to X to remind PM Modi how Indira Gandhi looked then-US President Richard Nixon in the eye ahead of the 1971 war with Pakistan. He called it "an abysmal failure of Mr. Modi's personalised and headline-grabbing style of huglomacy" with Trump.

"Now President Trump, while still claiming to be a friend of Mr. Modi, has hit India hard and unjustly. While his tariff and penalty actions are simply unacceptable, the fact remains that they also reflect the abysmal failure of Mr. Modi's personalised and headline-grabbing style of huglomacy," Ramesh went on.

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