Peter Navarro calls Russia-Ukraine stand-off 'Modi's war'

TOI correspondent from Washington: The Trump administration on Wednesday (local time) continued to unload on India for buying Russian oil, with the President's Trade counselor Peter Navarro characterising the Russia-Ukraine stand-off as "Modi's war," and cautioning New Delhi about getting close to Beijing and Moscow.

Hours after Washington's punitive 50 percent tariff on most imports from India kicked in at Tuesday midnight, Navarro told Bloomberg TV that it is "real easy" for New Delhi to get the 25 percent penalty removed tomorrow if it stops buying Russian oil, but India was being "arrogant" in not making that choice and insisting it was their sovereign right to buy Russian oil.

"India, you're the biggest democracy in the world, okay? Act like one... side with the democracies...(instead) you're getting in bed with the authoritarians," Navarro said, eyeing the camera and seeming to address New Delhi. He reminded India that it had been in a "quiet wara' with China for decades and they had "invaded Aksai Chin and all your territory "

"These are not your friends folks, okay? And the Russians. I mean, come on," Navarro scoffed, amid some fervid reports in the western media about India, Russia, and China getting into a clinch at the SCO meeting in Tianjin, China later this week.

The gathering has clearly annoyed, if not unnerved Washington, with many analysts warning that the Trump White House playing hardball with New Delhi on the tariff issue is simply pushing it closer to China and Russia, although the SCO meeting was planned well before the precipitous trade spat with India.

Navarro laced his comments with praise for Modi ("a great leader) and India ("a mature democracy with intelligent people running it"), but maintained it was wrong in buying Russian oil, making his familiar -- and largely discredited -- case that revenues from India purchase is fueling what he dubbed as "Modi's war." When the anchor corrected him saying "you mean Putin's war," Navarro insisted it was "Modi's war."

Widely regarded as an outlier in trade policy circles, Navarro's thesis that India is funding Russia's war has been trashed by large sections of the US media, which has questioned why Trump has not punishing China and the European Union, which buy large quantities of Russian energy -- not to speak of giving Moscow even more ammo -- and instead has squeezed India. The US itself buys Russian nuclear fuel and precious metals

Navarro himself once implicitly conceded China could not be punished because it had leverage, and Trump has treated Putin with such reverence that he's been called a Russian stooge by some US commentators, who in turn attract the US President's ire because he regards them as warmongers seeking constant strife, not peace, with Moscow.

Indian partisans deconstructed Navarro's thesis on social media, pointing out that it was the US and European countries that has fueled the war by attempting to draft Ukraine into Nato and then going on to arm Kiev. They also called out Navarro's bogus claim that US taxpayers are having to foot the bill for Ukraine's defence because India is funding Russia, pointing out that US is selling arms to Ukraine via Europe, and not giving it as aid or charity.