Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Thursday (July 31, 2025) criticized the newly imposed trade tariffs by the United States and urged the Indian government to protect national interests, particularly those of farmers and small businesses. The BSP leader added that such economic pressures by the United States should be met with resilience and transformed into opportunities for self-reliance.
“Despite the United States being described as a ‘friendly’ nation, the newly emerged challenge by US President Donald Trump imposing a 25 percent duty on Indian imports and a penalty on importing oil from Russia should be met with resilience and transformed into opportunities for self-reliance,” wrote Ms. Mayawati, on X, adding the country hopes the Union Government will live up to the assurance that no section, especially small and medium enterprises and the agricultural sector, will be adversely affected.
The former four-time U.P. CM said India is a country of the world’s largest population of hardworking people and if a policy is formulated to take the country forward on the basis of labour force providing work to every hand and implemented properly, then the country can certainly become a happy and prosperous with self-reliance as well as ‘Sarvajan Hitaay and Sarvajan Sukhaay’, in which the public and national interest is completely inherent and can also remain safe as per the humanitarian and welfare objective of the Constitution.
United States President Donald Trump on July 30 announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods from August 1, with an additional but unspecified “penalty” for its defence and energy imports from Russia.