Hours after US President Donald Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on goods coming from India as a penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil, several top politicians across political parties in opposition have lashed out at the decision by Washington. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor stated that the move is likely to impact the Indian economy and that the additional tariff will make Indian goods unaffordable to the Americans. He further said that several Indian competitors, including Pakistan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, have lower tariffs in comparison to India.
“I don’t think that’s particularly good news for us and that takes our total tariffs to 50 per cent then that’s going to make our goods unaffordable to a lot of people in America and in particularly when you’re looking at these percentages you have to compare them with the tariffs being levied on some of our competitors. I’m afraid that if you look at people like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, even Bangladesh and Pakistan have lower tariffs than us, then ultimately people will not be buying goods from us in America if they can buy them cheaper elsewhere,” Tharoor was quoted as saying by ANI.
“So that’s not very good for our exports to America. This means we need to very seriously diversify to other countries and other markets that may be interested in what we have to offer. We now have an FTA with the UK. We are talking to the EU. There are many countries in which hopefully we would be able to, but in the short term, it is definitely a blow,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people.
In a post on X, Gandhi said, “Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail – an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal. PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people.”
Trump’s 50% tariff is economic blackmail – an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal.
PM Modi better not let his weakness override the interests of the Indian people.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 6, 2025
Another Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, said that Trump, while claiming to be a friend of Mr. Modi, has hit India hard and unjustly.
Prime Minister Modi went to the US and attended a Howdy Modi event in Houston in Sept 2019. President Trump was also present and Mr. Modi broke with all tradition and declared Ab ki Baar Trump Sarkar.
In Feb 2020, President Trump was hosted by Mr. Modi to a gala Namaste Trump…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 6, 2025
“While his tariff and penalty actions are simply unacceptable, the fact remains that they also reflect the abysmal failure of Mr. Modi’s personalised and headline-grabbing style of huglomacy. India has stood up to the bullying of the US in the 1970s especially under the Prime Ministership of Smt. Indira Gandhi. Instead of defaming, distorting, and denigrating her, Mr. Modi should shed his ego–if indeed that were possible–and take inspiration from the manner in which she stood up to the USA. India’s foreign policy and administration needs a comprehensive reset,” he added.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray said that the concerned ministers should respond to the additional tariffs and added that they should not remain silent.
“…Why is no minister responding to it?… Why are all the ministers silent? Is the trade deal with the United States on or not?” Thackeray was quoted as saying by ANI.
What Did RBI Gov Say?
Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra said he does not see a major impact of US tariffs on the domestic inflation. Speaking with reporters at the central bank headquarters, Malhotra said there can be some impact if India retaliates with tariffs but was quick to add that he does not see the same coming.
Deputy Governor Poonam Gupta added that a majority, 50 per cent of India’s consumer price inflation (CPI) basket is food items, which have very limited exposure to global developments. Apart from that, there is a significant weightage of non-tradeable items in the basket, which is again not impacted by global developments like tariffs, she said.
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