Ro Khanna urges Indian-Americans to speak up on the issue of tariff, faces backlash.
Indian-origin Congressman Ro Khanna faces online backlash after he criticized President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on India. The Democrat Congressman said Trump had been destroying the US-India strategic partnership because Modi refused to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Khanna urged Indian-Americans to come forward and speak out over the issue. “As the co-chair of the US-India Caucus, I want to sound the five-alarm fire on what Donald Trump is doing to destroy the US-India partnership. He’s undermining 30 years of bipartisan work to strengthen the US-India alliance. He has imposed a 50% tariff on India, higher than any other country other than Brazil. It’s a higher tariff than the tariff on China. It is hurting India’s exports of leather and textiles into the United States,” Khanna said. “And it’s hurting American manufacturers and our exports into India. It is also driving India towards China and towards Russia. Now why is this happening? For very simple reasons — Prime Minister Modi refused to nominate Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Well, Pakistan did. And India has said that the border dispute with Pakistan is an internal matter, refusing to give Donald Trump credit,” Khanna said. Blaming Trump’s ego behind the situation, Khanna said Indian-Americans should come forward and not allow Trump’s ego to destroy the strategic relationship with India. “To all those Indian-Americans who voted for Donald Trump, I’m asking you, where are you today while he destroys this relationship?” Khanna said. While several Indian-Americans supported his opinion, many trolled him on X, alleging that he was defending Modi and not taking the side of Ukraine. “Why don’t you go back to India and run for elections there? India’s been raking in benefits from the US for years but barely gives anything back in return,” one wrote. “Modi is financing the destruction of Ukraine, who we pay to defend, while we pay India handsomely. We send net 10s of billions towards Modi’s economy annually. Not even Modi denies this. He claims it’s his “sovereign right” and hugs Putin, literally, this weekend. How is this what we deserve? AND WHY IS RO DEFENDING MODI AND NOT UKRAINE?” another wrote.
