White House trade adviser Peter Navarro repeated his trenchant criticism of India for buying oil from Russia, saying that “Brahmins” were profiteering at the expense of the rest of India.
“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,” Navarro said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. He also repeated his earlier criticism that India has turned into a “laundromat for the Kremlin’s money” and the “maharaja of tariffs”.
Navarro, who serves as senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing at the White House, has emerged as India’s most voluble detractors within the Trump Administration. Navarro has forcefully argued in favour of the 50% tariff on India levied by Washington -- which includes a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil. India has called the tariffs unreasonable and unjustified.
“The Biden admin largely looked the other way at this madness. President Trump is confronting it. A 50% tariff—25% for unfair trade and 25% for national security—is a direct response,” he wrote earlier.
{{/usCountry}}“The Biden admin largely looked the other way at this madness. President Trump is confronting it. A 50% tariff—25% for unfair trade and 25% for national security—is a direct response,” he wrote earlier.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier last week, Navarro posted a thread on X claiming that Indian oil refiners working with Russian partners were helping refine and sell “black market oil” for large profits on global markets, turning India into an “oil money laundromat” for the Kremlin.
He also accused India of “strategic freeloading” due to its purchases of Russian weapons even as it requested defence technology transfers from US companies. Navarro also referred to the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”.
Navarro’s previous criticism was dismissed by India’s petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a signed article in the Hindu newspaper on Monday. Puri said India has not violated any rules in purchasing Russian oil and its energy trade since the Ukraine war has helped stabilise global markets and keep prices in check. He added that the oil imports were compliant with a Group of Seven price-cap mechanism that was designed to limit Moscow’s revenues yet also keep crude flowing.
Puri rejected claims of profiteering, saying India has long been the world’s fourth-largest exporter of petroleum products, well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and its export volumes and refining margins have remained broadly the same.
“Some critics allege that India has become a ‘laundromat’ for Russian oil. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he wrote without directly naming Navarro.
Congress leader Pawan Khera called Navarro’s remarks “baseless”.
Member of the PM’s economic advisory council, Sanjeev Sanyal, also responded to the issue, stating that Peter Navarro’s comments indicate who controls the narrative about India inside the US.
With inputs from agencies
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