India is being humiliated in real-time, and New Delhi is mute. Enough.
X: @vivekbhavsar
Donald Trump has declared war on India’s dignity—one tweet at a time—and the Modi government is watching quietly from the sidelines. Within days of taking office for his second term, Trump didn’t waste a minute to humiliate India publicly, embrace Pakistan, and impose economic punishment on us. And what have we done in return? Nothing. Not a word. Not even a whisper of protest. This is not diplomacy. This is spinelessness at its peak.
Trump began by boasting about his oil deal with Pakistan. That alone should have rung alarm bells in South Block. But he didn’t stop there. He mocked India with surgical precision: “Maybe Pakistan will be selling oil to India someday.” This wasn’t policy—it was mockery. An insult wrapped in sarcasm. A taunt directed straight at the Modi government that once paraded him in Ahmedabad like royalty.
Where are the BJP leaders who once screamed “Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar”? Where is the foreign minister who never misses a chance to remind the world about India’s strategic autonomy? Where is Prime Minister Modi, the man who stood on stage with Trump shouting “Howdy Modi” as if the alliance was eternal? Today, their so-called friend is spitting in India’s face—and they stand mute, hoping it’ll go unnoticed.
Clyde Crasto, National Spokesperson of the NCP-SP, didn’t mince his words. He called it what it is: “Trump is a friend of Pakistan. No friend of a terrorist state can be a friend of anybody.” He demanded action, not more glorified silence. He said what the government refuses to admit—India is being taken for granted, insulted, and economically targeted by a country we once treated like an ally.
Then Trump doubled down. In another tweet, he declared India’s tariffs “obnoxious” and “among the highest in the world.” He accused India of propping up Russia, buying weapons and oil even as the world demands Moscow be isolated. And the verdict? A 25 percent tariff on Indian goods, plus a penalty, starting August 1. That’s economic warfare by another name. And yet, Delhi is still pretending nothing happened.
Crasto’s second salvo hit even harder: “Trump is taunting India nonstop. Why is EAM Jaishankar silent? Too much publicity of a so-called friendship has become injurious to our country.” He’s right. This fake friendship, built on flashy events and hollow hashtags, is now being exposed—tweet by tweet. Trump was never a partner. He was a showman looking for applause, and we handed him the microphone.
India is being made an example of. Trump is showing the world how to bully a rising power into submission, and the Modi government is letting it happen. Our exports—worth billions—are under threat. Our reputation as a strong, independent global voice is crumbling. And our government’s silence is being read worldwide as consent.
Let’s be brutally honest: if any other country had imposed this kind of economic aggression on India, there would have been outrage. But because it’s Trump, and because the BJP built its foreign policy image around him, they are too scared to bite back. That’s not foreign policy—it’s political cowardice.
Donald Trump wants loyalty, not friendship. He wants countries that bow, not those that walk tall. And India, with its silence, is giving him exactly what he wants. This is not strategic restraint—it is a diplomatic collapse. It is weakness masquerading as maturity.
Clyde Crasto’s words echo the mood of millions of Indians: it is time to stop hiding behind silence and slogans. It is time to hit back. India must respond with strength, not smiles. If not now, when?
Because if we remain silent now, we will no longer be seen as a power worth respecting—but as a nation that even its so-called friends can mock without fear.
Wake up, Delhi. Trump has drawn the line. Are we going to cross it—or crawl back behind it?
