US trade adviser Peter Navarro says he faced intense online attacks for comments which many viewed as insulting
US trade adviser Peter Navarro, whose uncouth and culturally insensitive remarks have often irked India, has claimed that he was “firebombed” online amid the backlash over his comments last year.
Navarro, who has acted as US President Donald Trump’s attack dog, invited the blowback after he repeatedly hurled insults at India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he tried to pressure New Delhi.
“I actually got firebombed by the Indian continent on the internet with all sorts of nasty little attacks,” Navarro told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “And all I would say is, don’t do that.”
The Trump aide repeatedly labelled India an “oil money laundromat” of the Kremlin and the “maharajah of tariffs” as Washington’s frustration mounted over its inability to isolate Russia and coerce India into finalizing a trade deal. He even called the Ukraine conflict “Modi’s war,” as he tried to shame New Delhi into stopping its Russian energy purchases.
India, the world’s most populous nation, has maintained that its energy purchases are driven by economic considerations and the need to secure reliable supplies for its 1.4 billion people.
New Delhi has also held back on signing a trade deal with Washington despite months of negotiations and the threat of steep tariffs from the Trump administration.
However, as he failed to get his way with New Delhi, Navarro’s railings crossed diplomatic limits. His use of an insensitive caste-based comment that “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people” – an argument designed to widen the societal faultlines in the South Asian country – was widely seen as going beyond the pale.
His criticism of Modi for “getting in bed” with leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping was also viewed as personal and crude.
On Tuesday, Navarro suggested that he was the aggrieved party. “That’s not how we resolve problems here in America,” he told reporters.
He also struck a different tone about India-US relations, responding to a question by saying: “The [US] president and your [Indian] prime minister have a very good working relationship… They are going to work that out amongst themselves, and it’s not for me to get between that.”
India’s purchases of Russian oil hit record highs last month, and reports have said New Delhi is unlikely to be deterred by a new US sanctions bill that could see steep tariffs imposed for continued Russian energy imports.
