My dear Navarro,
This author, immediately after the results of the US elections in November 2024, came out with a write-up titled “Donald Trump rises like a phoenix from ashes!” and it got published in various newspapers and websites in the same month. Ever since that particular point of time, many things happened and the course of events brought us all to this point today that we are seriously reviewing the whole scenario.
India, Indians and the people of Indian origin, on the basis of their experiences of the first term of President Trump and also the past bonhomie between Trump & PM Modi, extended their almost unilateral support to Trump before and during his campaign for the Presidency of the US. Nobody ever imagined that things would eventually come to such a pass that Americans in power would hurl all sorts of invectives upon India and Indians for absolutely no reasons and worthwhile logic that go contrary to the diplomatic code of conduct.
The latest to join in command is none other than you, Peter Kent Navarro, Sr. Councillor to the US President, seemingly an experienced septuagenarian, unmindful of the efforts put in to develop Indo-US relationship over the last 25 years. The latest statements emanating from your mind and mouth are surely a cause of concern that needs an appropriate response.
You said that, ‘Brahmins in India are profiteering from the Russian oil purchases’. You also without applying your tired mind and intellect said, “It was a shame to see Mr. Modi in bed as the leader of the biggest democracy in the world with the two authoritarian dictators in the world, Putin and Xi Jinping, That doesn’t make any sense”.
Mr. Navarro, I have a strong feeling that the government of India has decided to apply restraint and not to react to any such uncalled for comments from the US that have potential to damage the relations further. You have provided a hint in this context in your own statement as well and have admitted that, “I’m not sure what he (Mr. Modi) is thinking, particularly since India has been in a cold war and sometimes a hot war with China for decades. So we hope that the Indian leader comes around to seeing that he needs to be with us, Europe and Ukraine and not with Russia on this and he needs to stop buying the oil”.
It would be in order, my dear Navarro, before I respond to your above statements, to bring to the notice of the readers what your past and present colleagues in the US say about the people like you in your country and also about the current Indo-US situation. They have a definite logic and reasoning in this context which require your attention for your own benefit and knowledge.
Former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described Trump’s move as a huge strategic harm to the US’ interests and a blow to decades of bipartisan efforts to strengthen ties with India. “On a bipartisan basis, going back decades, the United States has worked to build its relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy –a country that we should be aligned with in dealing with the strategic threat from China”. ‘The shift as per Sullivan undermines Washington’s credibility and sends a worrying signal to the US’ allies worldwide that it could be them tomorrow’.
John Mearsheimer, a leading American international relations expert termed the Trump administration’s India policy a ‘colossal blunder’ and asserted that ‘secondary tariffs on India for buying Russian oil won’t work’. He said that ‘the Indians have made it clear that they will not cut off the importation of oil from Russia. Indians are not going to cave’. He also accused Trump of ‘poisoning a terrific relationship with India’.
But the confusion within the Trump administration multiplied with what happened during the SCO Summit in China. The US Embassy in India found it urgent & appropriate to issue the following statement right before the Summit on X. It quoted the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “The enduring friendship between our two peoples is the bedrock of our cooperation and propels us (US & India) forward as we realize the tremendous potential of our economic relationship”.
Let us now move to your unwarranted statements about the situation. First of all, it is none of your business to speak on the issue as to how and who makes profits on oil purchases in India. You are also no one to dictate India about the sellers and purchasers. All sovereign nations and especially India take such decisions keeping in view their national interests and that is true even about the US as well.
In case you have got any sort of interest in class-conflict in India, this statement seems like adding fuel to the fire. But interestingly in India, there is no visible or invisible fire of any such nature that you could cash on.
We are a civilization that dates back to thousands of years and have gone through several struggles in our history. Our nationhood is not a few hundreds of year’s old story; it is deep rooted along with a rich and great culture, tradition and social consciousness & cohesiveness that none of our detractors were successful in destroying over the last one thousand years of our turbulent history.
British imperialism in the context of India was successful in its policy of ‘divide and rule’ partially which we fear has now been adopted by the new US dispensation, unfortunately. Be assured, it would fail and fail miserably again. India is a ten thousand years continuous flow of life that creates hope for hopeless, life for lifeless and soul for soulless.
You said that it was ‘a shame to see Modi in bed with Putin and Xi Jinping…..the two authoritarian dictators’. Wow….! From an analytical point of view, wouldn’t it be appropriate also to debate about situations of ‘bigger shame’ and the ‘biggest shame’ as well. There are numerous instances available with us and let us share a few of them for everybody’s information and knowledge.
Only a few days before the SCO Summit in Tianjin, President Trump was seen in bed with the same ‘authoritarian dictator’ President Putin in Alaska. From your analogy, it is also a shame; rather a bigger shame that the so-called oldest democracy of the world was hands-in-glove with the ‘authoritarian dictator’ enjoying extreme closeness for more than three hours.
Bigger shame was when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was invited to the White House for lunch and then abused and reprimanded under a public glaze (televised globally) in the White House through a presser. He was forced to leave the White House to take his lunch in his hotel thus creating a record making event.
Equally bigger shame was when the elected President of the ‘oldest democracy’ invited a failed Field Marshal of Pakistan at a lunch in White House and discussed with him issues pertaining to international diplomacy, trade and politics. He was again invited to Washington DC to provide him a stage under the nose of the White House to warn the world that if Pakistan was threatened, it would in turn destroy half of the world. The bigger shame was that the US Administration kept mum on the threat and allowed its land to be used against a sovereign nation and the other nations of the globe.
Pakistan is the very nation that provided a hiding space to Osama bin Laden, the planner and executor of the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Centre, nearer to the headquarters of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi. David Cameron, former Prime Minister of UK said in 2010 that ‘Pakistan was the epicentre of global terrorism’. The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 said in Islamabad, “You (Pakistan) cannot keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard’.
She was referring to the terror regime in Pakistan and the cover and consistent support provided to them by the Pakistan government and the Army establishment there. The bigger shame is that the ‘oldest democracy’ chose a failed military chief to discuss matters of international diplomacy rather than an elected Prime Minister in Pakistan knowing very well about his connivance in exporting terrorism. President Trump was highly critical of the support provided to Pakistan by the past US administration and also expressed his displeasure publicly only some months back in this regard. The bigger shame is that he chose to do the same that he admonished earlier just to gain some bucks for his family business in Pakistan.
There are other instances also available that reflect the biggest shame in context of the whole narrative. President Trump repeated his claim of bringing truce between India and Pakistan during and after Operation Sindoor umpteen times that was never confirmed by any of the two nations. The miserable failure despite such claims in regard to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine is one more instance in this context.
The biggest shame also comes along with the statement issued by an elected President of the ‘oldest democracy’ that calls the fastest growing economy of the world a ‘dead economy’. Then he desires that the ‘largest democracy’ enters into a working trade agreement with the ‘oldest democracy’ of the world with its ‘dead economy’.
Enough is enough, Mr. Peter Navarro…..US needs to reconcile to the fact that it is past 1950s and the world has moved ahead in a different direction. We are now living in a multipolar world and the days of a unipolar world are over. You and your President need urgently to come out of your make-believe world, and sooner the better….!
(The author is a senior BJP & KP leader, Human Rights Defender, author & columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
