New Delhi: Accusing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi of meek surrender before the US President Donald Trump, the Congress today blamed him for compromising the country’s strategic interests related to defence and economy.
The Congress party spokesperson Dr Ajoy Kumar pointed out how Modi had failed to secure and safeguard India’s strategic, defence and economic interests during his visit to the United States.
The Congress spokesperson also warned that in case tariffs on import of agricultural products were removed or slashed, it will completely destroy Indian agriculture and no farmer will survive. He said, in that case we may be consuming the apples from Seattle in the US and milk from California.
Similarly, he added, once the tariffs on import of automobiles are slashed, the Indian companies like Mahindra and Mahindra, the Tata and the Maruti will completely be destroyed.
Dr Kumar said that unlike the French President Emmanuel Macron who contradicted and corrected Trump when he was speaking against France, Modi remained a mute spectator when Trump was insulting India and accusing it of charging the highest tariffs.
Referring to the US aid of $ 350 million to Pakistan for maintenance of the F-16 fighter planes, the Congress spokesperson said that the government of India did not raise any objections.
He said, when the Americans sold F-16 to Pakistan, there was a condition that these will be used only against terrorism and not against the adversaries. He said, despite Pakistan violating that condition by using these planes to attack India’s defence installations in 2019, the government of India could not register even a token protest against US funding Pakistan.
On India agreeing to purchase F-35 from the US, Dr Kumar said, the Modi government should have spoken to defence experts in the country. He pointed out the same planes had been rejected by Elon Musk by terming them as junk.
He said that Modi was going out of way to please and appease Trump, pointing out, how the government of India slashed the import tariff on Harley Davidson motorcycles by 50 percent and the Tesla cars by 85 percent ahead of Modi’s US visit.
Dr Kumar said, withdrawing tariffs on imports will lead to India becoming a dumping ground for the US and the Chinese products. He said, the reciprocal tariff will hit the GDP growth by at least 0.5 to 0.6 percent, giving the example that if the GDP growth rate is 6.5 percent, it may come down to 5.9 percent.
He also referred to the massive fall in stock prices saying Rs 80 lakh crores had been wiped out of the stock market, which has badly hit the retail investors and those who have invested in mutual funds.
