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‘Indeed… from upper caste’: Cong's Udit Raj on Trump aide's ‘Brahmin’ remark on Indians ‘profiteering’ from Russian oil
“It is true that upper caste corporate houses are buying cheep oil from Russia and after the refining, selling it to other countries,” former MP Udit Raj says
Even as his party condemns it, Congress leader Udit Raj has backed the caste-centered argument of a top US official who said “Brahmins [are] profiteering” from India's purchase of oil from Russia despite its war in Ukraine.
“I couldn’t agree more [with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro]. Indeed private Indian oil refiners are from upper caste and it may take decades, may be centuries that so called lower castes would reach to the position of oil refiners,” Udit Raj, a former MP who belongs to the Dalit community, wrote on X, not naming anyone.
Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose earlier sought to contextualise the use of the term "Brahmin". She said it is often used in the US to denote social or economic elites in general.
The X post by Udit Raj, a former Indian Revenue Service officer, further said: “It is true that upper caste corporate houses are buying cheep oil from Russia and after the refining, selling it to other countries. Indian people are not getting any benefits from it."
Also read | Who is Peter Navarro: Trump tariff hawk who cites fictional expert ‘Ron Vara’, his own ‘alter ego’, in books
What Navarro said on ‘Brahmins’, Modi, India
On Sunday, Navarro added to his list of aggressive remarks: from calling India “maharaja of tariffs” and “laundromat of Russia”, to terming the Ukraine conflict “Modi’s war”, and now the “Brahmin” jibe.
"Look, [PM Narendra] Modi is a great leader. I don't understand why he's getting into bed with [Russia's Vladimir] Putin and when he's the biggest democracy in the world. So 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," Navarro said in an interview with Fox News, again without naming any corporates.
He was speaking on a day that PM Modi was in China for the SCO Summit, where het met Putin and China's Xi Jinping one-on-one too, as part of India's renewed eastward push in the face of Trump's 50% tariffs.
Govt, Cong on Trump adviser's remarks
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera earlier on Monday criticised Peter Navarro's “Brahmin” remark: "America should not make baseless statements like this."
From the government, there has been a reaction to the remarks, more pointedly to the US logic for the “penal” tariffs. Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri wrote in The Hindu: “Some critics allege that India has become a ‘laundromat’ for Russian oil. Nothing could be further from the truth… India's adherence to all international norms prevented a catastrophic $200 per barrel shock.”
Ambanis cancel US fest
Meanwhile, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's family, which controls Reliance Industries that operates the world’s largest refining complex, has called off a theatre festival scheduled for mid-September in New York, as India-US relations sour on New Delhi's Russian oil imports.
Refiners are caught in crosshairs of the US and India discord over Russian oil. US officials, including Peter Navarro and Scott Bessent, have criticised “India’s politically connected energy titans”, and accused them of war profiteering.
