This is not the case: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor differs with Rahul Gandhi over Trump remarks
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said that the US President Donald Trump's statement regarding India's economy were not correct. With his statement the Thiruvananthapuram MP disagreed with his party leader Rahul Gandhi, who a day earlier had endorsed Trump's statement. Other Congress leaders like Rajiv Shukla and Karti Chidambaram also seemed to be in disagreement with Gandhi.
New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday completely rejected US President Donald Trump's remarks that the Indian economy was "dead". He said, "this is not the case." He thus differed from his party leader Rahul Gandhi, who a day earlier had endorsed the US President's statement regarding India's economy.
Tharoor differs with Rahul Gandhi on President Trump's economy remark
When questioned by reporters about the remarks made by Trump, Tharoor said, "This is not the case and we all know it." He was interacting with reporters right outside Parliament.
On Thursday, US President Trump had launched an attack on both India andRussia and described their economies as "dead". He said that he did not care about the dealings between New Delhi and Moscow and that they can "take their dead economies down together".
Trump also criticised the high tariff rates put by India on US products. Taking to social media, he wrote, "We have done very little business with India, their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let's keep it that way."
Trump also announced 25 per cent tariffs on India and an additional penalty for buying Russian military equipment and energy.
Just hours later Rahul Gandhi said that he agreed with Trump's statement regarding India's economy. He said that everybody know this (that the Indian economy is dead) except for PM Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He said that the US leader had stated a fact.
Meanwhile, apart from Tharoor other Congress leaders also did not seem to be on th same page with Rahul Gandhi. Party MP Karti Chidambaram distanced himself from Gandhi's remarks. He described Trump as an "unconventional politician".
Chidambaram was quoted by NDTV as saying, "India and America are large economies that need each other. We also have people-to-people ties. Flipping comments made by the president of the United States are not going to derail this relationship in the long run."
He further said that President Trump had made similar comments about other countries earlier, but eventually he has come to make some sort of understanding with them.
Congress party's Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Shukla said that Trump's statement was "completely wrong." He told news agency ANI that India's economic condition was not at all weak. If someone claims they can finish us economically, it's likely due to a misunderstanding, he added. Shukla said that the US leader was living in a delusion.