New Delhi: In a clear indication that the Congress will attempt to corner the Government on the issue when the Budget session of Parliament resumes on Monday, party MP Jairam Ramesh raised the issue of US ‘permission’ to India to purchase Russian oil amid the ongoing crisis in the Gulf.
Ramesh, on Saturday, accused the Narendra Modi government of turning “cowardly and compromised” after US officials claimed Washington granted India permission to buy Russian oil floating on global waterways during the West Asia conflict.
His criticism came in response to remarks by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who described the move as temporary relief for world oil supplies.
Posting on X with a video clip, Ramesh asked: “Does anything more need to be said about how cowardly and compromised the self-proclaimed 56-inch chest has become?” He highlighted Bessent’s comment that the US allowed the purchases “to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world”.
Bessent, in a Friday Fox Business interview, praised India’s compliance: “The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil.” He added the US might “unsanction other Russian oil”, noting “hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of crude on the water” could boost supply. “And we are looking at that. We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” he said.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright provided details on X: “We have implemented short term measures to help keep oil prices down. We are allowing our friends in India to take oil that is already on ships around Southern Asia, refine it, and move the stocks into the market quickly in order to ensure a flowing supply and ease pressure amid the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran.”
In an ABC News Live interview, Wright elaborated on stranded crude: “China does not treat their suppliers well, so there’s a bunch of floating barrels just sitting there. We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, ‘Buy that oil. Bring it into your refineries’. That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world to buy oil that they’re no longer competing with the Indians for in that marketplace.”
Dismissing the charges, a senior government functionary stressed on Friday: “India has never been dependent on permission from any nation to buy Russian oil, and though the US sanctions waiver allowing refiners to purchase it removes friction, it does not define the country’s policy.” Russian oil flowed in despite US objections, including a 2013 adjustment by the Congress-led UPA government.
The BJP termed the 30-day waiver a success of PM Modi’s strategic oil diplomacy, calling it a setback for “anti-India Rahul Gandhi and the Congress”.
The US action follows President Trump’s 25% punitive tariffs on India for Russian oil purchases aiding Moscow’s Ukraine war. Last month, a US-India trade framework prompted Trump to remove the tariffs via Executive Order, rewarding New Delhi’s commitment to “stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products”.
