How India was lost: A colossal White House blunder

A recent bombshell by Trump to levy a humongous $100,000 license fees on H-1B visas per head on import of temporary workers into the USA has not only shocked India but the big tech in the USA. This happened sardonically when a US trade delegation was in Delhi discussing a bilateral trade agreement. Everyone loses.

This move is coming on the top of a barrage of mischievous, misleading and inaccurate references to India by Peter Navarro, senior trade counselor to President Trump. Repeated remarks, such as, ‘Modi’s War’, ‘laundromat’, ‘profiteering Brahmins’, ‘Maharaja of tariffs’, to name a few, lie at the heart of Washington’s new approach to India.

Despite being factually incorrect, the White House has gone to the US Supreme Court justifying unilateral tariffs stating that India is funding Russia in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine by buying oil and weaponry. A relationship assiduously built over two decades through bipartisan support from both countries now lies in tatters.


Consider just a few facts: first, how conveniently it has been suppressed that the US enjoys a $40 billion surplus with India when you take services and royalty from arms into account; second, the consumers of Russia’s crude oil, LNG and pipeline gas include China and the European Union in significantly higher quantum than India.

Third, while President Zelensky backs President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on India for purchase of Russian oil, Ukraine’s purchase of diesel, which India refines from Russian crude oil, has significantly jumped. Fourth, EU’s diesel imports from India skyrocketed to 137% in August 2025!

Navarro knew full well that his anti-India rhetoric is not based on facts. Yet, he chose to persist with them, including using uncouth and abrasive language. He did this primarily for three reasons; first, he knew that President Trump would not factcheck him and so, he provided him a scapegoat on a platter and hoped the sycophancy would appeal to the President.

Second, he did not wish to alienate Beijing, given the dependence the US has on imports of rare earths from China and further, that strong arm US tactics against New Delhi would go down well with Beijing. Thirdly, he gambled on India adopting a forgive-and-forget policy and quietly accept the humiliation and public castigation. He saw this as strategic coercion.

The gamble backfired. Navarro was in a state of shock, as were his colleagues, that the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit saw personal bonhomie between Prime Minister Modi, President Putin and President Xi Jinping.

Anguished and annoyed, Navarro said India needed to be with the US. He was not alone. Howard Lutnick, US Commerce Secretary, said that India would come crawling back to the US and apologize to President Trump! Gratuitous advice was also given that India should quit BRICS, even though it is a founding member.

Not to be left out, Navarro went a step further and threatened that things would not go down well for India and described BRICS member countries as ‘vampires’. Further, to provoke and frustrate New Delhi, the White House feted, wined and dined Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff soon after Operation Sindoor, which saw Islamabad running to Washington to stop Indian attacks against its military assets and terror infrastructure.

The current US administration ought to know that bad behaviour, intemperate language and bullying are ingredients of bad strategy. If Washington believes that a fast growing nation of 1.4 billion people will roll over and quietly accept being humiliated and further, that its elected popular Prime Minister can be publicly rubbished on false charges, it is sadly mistaken.

We are a feisty democracy and at times of national crisis, there is bipartisan support in protecting national pride and interest, triggering a national rejection of US arm-twisting. This would also see a groundswell of public opinion to shun all things American. It is a common adage that markets once lost are difficult to regain because it creates space for new players, who then entrench themselves as viable alternatives.

For Prime Minister Modi, these false allegations have come as a personal attack, given the genuine warmth with which he had reached out to President Trump, including an unprecedented gesture of publicly endorsing his candidature as president. An insult such as this is not easily forgotten or forgiven. The trust factor – key to a strategic partnership – has been swiftly felled by Navarro through blatant falsehoods and abrasive language.

The good thing in all of this is that New Delhi has realized that the relationship with Washington has never been strategic but only transactional and further, is never likely to be otherwise. Navarro reflects how the White House perceives India – as a laundromat.

Many would argue that this is the decades-long story of India-US relations – it starts with promise and hope of a new beginning and ends in a mighty heap of frustration. In a deeply divided and divisive world, the White House needs to ask itself whether alienating India is in their interest. At the same time, India needs to recall Kissinger, who once wryly advised that it was dangerous to have the US as an enemy and worse to have it as a friend. We live, as the Chinese remind us, in interesting times. The script continues to be a work-in-progress.


Amit Dasgupta is a former Indian diplomat and Pradeep S. Mehta is a public policy advocate and NGO adviser to the DG, WTO