Washington: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, in his fresh tirade against India, said: “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop.”
In an interview to Fox News on Monday, Navarro referred to India as “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin” and accused New Delhi once again of enabling trade imbalances and geopolitical alliances that run counter to US interests.
“And on top of that, by the way, 25% or 50% is because India is the Maharaja of tariffs. They have the highest tariffs in the world. They won’t let us sell to them, so who gets hurt, workers in America, taxpayers in America… Ukrainians in cities are getting killed by Russian drones,” he said.
His comments come at a time when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit with the Chinese and Russian presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
“So, you know, look, Modi’s a great leader… But I don’t understand why he’s getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping…when he’s the leader of the biggest democracy in the world. I would just simply say to the Indian people. Please, understand what’s going on here. You’ve got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop,” he added.
Modi met Xi on Sunday on the sidelines of the SCO leaders’ summit, during which both leaders welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations since their last meeting in Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in October 2024.
Navarro has been backing US president Donald Trump’s tariff rollout that has taken the world by storm. Even the US Appeals Court has ruled it as “illegal.”
On Friday, Navarro had accused India of profiting from Russian oil. “India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin. Indian refiners buy cheap Russian oil, process it, and export fuels to Europe, Africa, and Asia – shielded from sanctions under the pretence of neutrality,” he had said in a series of posts on X.