Congress's tariff tiff? Manish Tewari says Trump move affirms India's autonomy

India Today

6 days ago

Even after Congress MP Jairam Ramesh mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Donald Trump's declaration of a 25% tariff on Indian goods, the NDA government found support from his party colleague Manish Tewari, who said that the US President's threat has given more legitimacy to "Indian strategic exceptionalism" and will hardly affect New Delhi's "strategic autonomy.""The @realDonaldTrumphas perhaps given the biggest tribute to Indian strategic exceptionalism and strategic autonomy now stretching back to 1947," the Lok Sabha MP tweeted, shortly after Trump's announcement.advertisementOutlining India's foreign policy from Jawaharlal Nehru's non-alignment stance during the Cold War era to Prime Minister Modi's present-day 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', Tewari said that India has always forged its own path, keeping its national interests in focus ever since gaining independence.
"The Policy of Non alignment that was put in place by India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru now called multi alignment and self reliance put in place by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi now called Atam Nirbhar Bharat are the strategic continuums that provides the Indian state with the flexibility to engage with the world on it's own terms and in it's best national interest," he said.The Congress MP was confident that Trump's trade threat wouldn't affect India's "strategic autonomy", which he noted had been built over the years by forging alliances across the board."Would @realDonaldTrump 's Tariff threat make any difference to the strategic autonomy that we have built up over the decades and across different dispensations and administration's - NOT REALLY," he went on.However, Tewari ended his message on a cautionary note, saying that only time will tell whether India's broader ties with the US remain unaffected."Would it damage the larger fabric of the Indo - US engagement- PERHAPS!"Interestingly, Tewari, who had earlier taken a poetic dig at his party for omitting his name from Congress's list from speaking in the ongoing Operation Sindoor debate, took a different line of approach as compared to his senior colleague, Jairam Ramesh.Both Tewari and Shashi Tharoor, who were part of India's all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor abroad, were benched by their party during the ongoing debate in the Parliament.Following Trump's tariff announcement, Ramesh mocked the bonhomie shared between the two leaders, referencing the "Howdy Modi" event and other moments of camaraderie, saying, "All that taarif between him and Howdy Modi has meant little."He pointed to Trump's repeated claims of halting Operation Sindoor, a high-profile US-Pakistan lunch that featured the Pakistan Army Chief soon after the Pahalgam terror attacks, and Washington's continued support for IMF and World Bank financial packages to Pakistan. Despite these developments, Ramesh said, Modi chose silence — expecting diplomatic rewards that never came.- EndsTune InMust Watch