As Govt Assures Of Steps On Trump Tariff, Rahul Backs Trump On “Dead Economy”

A day after the U.S. President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on Indian goods, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Parliament that the government would closely examine the implication and assured that all necessary steps will be taken to protect India’s national interest. He further informed the Parliament that India and the U.S. started talks for a just, balanced and mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in March 2025 and “the goal of this was to finish the first stage of the agreement by October-November 2025.” In contrast the Congress led by LoP Rahul Gandhi latched on to Trump’s jibe about India being a “dead economy” shockingly with such glee that it is unexplainable. It was as if they were happy that some economic pain or cost was going to be inflicted on India. In a post on X,  Rahul  had  even gone on to  back up Trump’s claim about the state of India’s economy —  listing   reasons for  why the economy failed under PM Modi. Of course, it wasn’t Rahul alone who was happy about the Trump Tariff jab. Former FM P Chidambaram too seemed happy. He posted that “The 25% tariff on all Indian exports to the United States PLUS penalty for buying Russian oil is a big blow to India’s trade. The U.S. ‘Dosti’ is no substitute for diplomacy and painstaking negotiations”. He was obviously targeting external affairs minister S Jaishankar. Rahul’s close aide Jairam Ramesh who has been counting  how many times Trump claimed that he had  stopped Op Sindoor midway was quite clear  that the 25% tariff  was a huge setback to PM Modi and India. He went on to say  “Taareef hi tareef mein tariff lag gaya…There were no gains from Howdy Modi and Namaste Trump. So what did we get from this (India-U.S.) friendship?”