India and the US will eventually be back to take their partnership in a positive direction for the longer-term interests of both the countries, said former MoS MEA and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. He said that the tariffs are indeed a “very sharp setback” for India in the short term, adding that one must look at the “large picture”.

“It’s costing us, it’s costing jobs in India, it’s costing losses in India. So, for India, it is bad news this year. But look at the large picture. Is America prepared to write off India altogether?” the Congress MP added.

“At the moment, there is no reason to imagine that…India and US are working and cooperating at various levels. So, I don’t see that suddenly halting…The anti-immigration constituency has suddenly become much more vocal and much more acceptable than before…Today, the dominant political forces, the so-called MAGA movement, are very openly anti-immigrants…Today, political correctness is no longer there (in the US),” he said.

ALSO READ

‘Tariffs not magic instrument’

The Congress argued against Donald Trump’s tariff regime and said that the US President’s idea that tariffs are the magic instrument to solve a number of his problems is wrong. “…The unfairness of this has created a very strong backlash in India and the accompanying insults, both by Mr Trump’s own language in his statements and tweets and subsequently extremely offensive statements by his advisor Mr Navarro…” he added.

“…Mr Trump has this idea that tariffs are the magic instrument to solve a number of his problems. He feels that too many things that used to be manufactured in America are now being imported from abroad. He wants to make that more expensive so that the American manufacturers will start doing things more in America and employ American workers who are his MAGA constituency, as it’s called,” he added.

Tharoor explained that Trump believes that tariffs can be a useful source of revenue for his country as there is a massive deficit in America. “It is the largest in the world by far. He hopes that by actually collecting, as he claims, billions of dollars every month in revenues by tariffs, he will be able to bring down his deficit…The unfairness of this has created a very strong backlash in India and the accompanying insults, both by Mr Trump’s own language in his statements and tweets and subsequently extremely offensive statements by his advisor Mr Navarro…” he further said.

ALSO READ

How should India deal with Trump tariffs? Tharoor responds

Tharoor called US President Donald Trump’s decision (of 50% tariffs on India) a “setback” and “a bit disappointing”. “…Fortunately, a delegation (from the US) did come last week and our Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has gone (to the US) which suggest to me that they are very close to coming to an Agreement,” Tharoor said.

“That would be on the first 25%. So, if we can get that 25% down to the same 15-19%, maximum 20% that our rivals have, then we are back on business on all those items, provided that second 25% is dealt with separately. As long as that second 25% is there, it almost doesn’t matter what the first 25% is because with that second 25% we are out of business with America and we will have to go on diversifier exports elsewhere. But that second 25% is a political matter. As far as I am aware, it is not in Mr Goyal’s brief to go into that. He is there to try and settle a deal on trade elements. So, that’s where we stand on the tariffs,” he elaborated.

‘Lots of uncertainties around’: Tharoor on H1B visa fee hike

Shashi Tharoor also responded to the ongoing row on Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee hike. He agreed that the fee is a serious blow and a “triple whammy” on India in the last few weeks, but added that the “India-US crisis could be partly calming down”.

In a post on X, he shared his reply when asked to describe the prevailing situation between India and the United States in an interview. He replied, “In the short term we are like a ship buffeted by extremely stormy and turbulent weather, the waves are cascading, tossing us from one side to the next and that’s why to say we are on even keel right now would obviously be premature.”

“There are lots of uncertainties around, but there’s still a possibility that the India-US relationship could recover very substantially during the remaining three years and four months of the Trump presidency. This is a tour d’horizon interview on several different but important aspects of Indo-US relations,” he added.