Stop Navarro From Damaging India-U.S. Relations Irreparably

When President Trump has advisers like Peter Navarro, he needs no enemies.

- SURENDRA KUMAR

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 stabilize 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, fertilizers 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 is he merely HMV?