Trump wants India to speak with its head down instead of up – This is the reason for his anger
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Two things are clear. The Trump administration has taken offence to talking ‘eye to eye’ and mentioning sovereignty. His administration does not approve of any country talking about its economic interests in talks with it.
The secrets of why the Donald Trump administration is upset with India are being revealed by its own officials. Commerce Minister Scott Besant has said that the reason is not just buying crude oil from Russia, but India was also adopting an ‘obstinate’ attitude in trade talks. Now President Donald Trump’s chief trade advisor Peter Noveiro has said that ‘they (Indians) are so arrogant that they look us in the eye and say that their import duty is not high. Regarding Russian oil, they say that it is our sovereignty, we can buy oil from wherever we want.’
So two things are clear. The Trump administration has taken offence to talking ‘eye to eye’ and mentioning sovereignty. At a time when Trump is nursing the illusion of bringing back American ‘greatness’ through tariffs and other means, his administration did not approve of a country which has built its own image of being America’s stooge talking about its own interests. In such a situation, it is clear that India could have avoided the brunt of American tariffs only by completely opening its markets and resources to American companies and becoming a part of the American strategic plan at the cost of its own loss.
Now it is worth considering whether India should pay such a high price? The pro-American public opinion in India is very strong. The Indian elite have deep vested interests in America and the neo-liberal economic model led by it. In such a situation, there is no dearth of people arguing that the Indian government should change its stance and manage relations with America. But such groups should remember that the current central government’s natural inclination has also been in favor of America like them. Despite this, if America has felt bad about its stance, then it only means that the Narendra Modi government has applied the brakes after reaching a limit. Demanding to bend further than this can only be done by adopting an unwise or extremely selfish attitude.
