How does Trump imposing tariffs on India for buying Russian oil affect the partnership between both countries in the long run - my thoughts

      Since the Cold War times, despite the fact of India being a country that shares the same democratic values as the US, India has always had an evergreen relationship with the US's arch rival and enemy - Russia or more specifically the USSR as it was called in those days, not because we wish to tick off the US but because other countries problems are not ours (same as with Ukraine), this does not come as a great surprise as in the past, whenever India and Pakistan had conflicts across the border, Europe was not shaking with concern to come to our aid, this is even as India is very nationalistic and nationalism is a very crucial nature of Indians, it was the US that always had a problem with Russia and vice versa whereas we never had the same issue with the Russia as a nation that was willing to sell us cheap and reasonably good equipment. The US on the other hand was supporting Pakistan - India's sworn enemy and this was based on whether countries leaned more towards the Soviet Bloc or Western Bloc spearheaded by the US. In the current age however, India is a part of the BRICS Alliance which Trump is clearly opposed to because he does not want the dollar to lose its value which is one of the reasons why he imposing 50% tariffs on Indian imports to the US. Why does India not always nod its head in assent to US demands and just get on with the US' program like so many other countries?. We will see the reasons for the same below.

i) India shares democratic values with the US and wants to be friendly with all nations while retaining autonomy on its international choices :

   Trump can try to slap as many tariffs as he wants on India but he fails to realise that India will not buckle into pressure by another foreign nation because if the tariff rates keep increasing, India will leave the US market altogether and let us face it, while we want to be in good terms with all nations, it also does not mean that we can be pushed around by any nation, no matter how powerful it is. If nations approach us in a friendly manner and want to have a fair and truthful relationship with us as a nation, we would gladly open our arms out wide and receive them but our cordial nature or conviviality should not be seen or viewed as a sign of weakness because we will never allow ourselves to be dictated to by the likes of any nation whatsoever. Even our Indian defense sector has used an assortment of equipment from many different nations and while many in the US defense establishment might view this as a disadvantage in terms of maintenance and reliability of equipment like fighter jets, our technicians and engineers have been trained to handle the various equipment as they are meant to be handled and maintained and we are ok with it as a nation. If any nation is going to tell us "either you do it our way or the highway", then we would gladly take the highway because there are plenty of other nations willing to trade with us and if the US is going to form a lobby forcing EU nations to join in with its program, it only reinforces the idea that the US is a nation that cannot be trusted whence the need for further diversification and autonomy by India as a nation. 

ii) India is truly independent only when it is fully autonomous and self-sufficient as a nation which we will strive to achieve as a nation:

    India got its independence in 1947 from the UK and since then we have been celebrating our Independence day each year on the 15th of August but what does Independence mean?, It is a complex question that has so many dimensions to it as independence means freedom or liberty, this can mean liberty from social ills or from an industrial perspective it means full autonomy or being self-sufficient and as Indians, we are fully convinced that this is the way of the future keeping our national interests as a country in mind. Concepts like "make in India" reflect our wish to be independent in our industrial sector as a nation without having to depend on foreign sellers as our dependence on other nations can be used against us by global players like the US seeking to exert their dominance via diplomacy through arms embargoes and so on. India is not the only country in the world seeking autonomy in its industries - there are so many others like Japan, Korea, China, Russia, France etc, hence self-sufficiency is true power and the way of the future for all nations, not just for the USA. This is also why our Indian defense experts feel more at home making deals with like-minded nations like France that recognise India as a sovereign nation having its rights to seek its own interests without imposing their views or authority over us the way the US does. In essence, Trump's US is like this big, fat, nasty kid in class who is like a bully having his own entourage of supporters and India is the kid who is quietly minding his own business but does not want to be pushed around by Trump's big fat bully America.

iii) Since the Cold War, India has a relationship with Russia, why not with America, why with Russia?:

      Let us face it, India as a nation has more in common with the US as a nation in terms of democratic values, why then does India seek to maintain its relationship with Russia?. After the Second World War came the Cold War with the arms race between the US and USSR and while the USSR with its Communist ideals really did not match India's Democracy which was more akin to the US's capitalistic views and support for Democracy, Russia at the time never acted like this big bully towards nations that did not join the Eastern Block, especially towards India but stood up for India when the US sided with Pakistan during our wars with Pakistan - a nation that supports Islamic terrorism across the Kashmir border. Fast forward to the present and we see Trump's US leveraging its ties with India to slap tariffs on our exports to the US in a bid to get India to sever its age-old ties with Russia and also during the Cold War, there were instances when similar things happened between the US and India. India historically did not want any of this bullying and never liked this imperialistic attitude of the US from then on and our choices at present seeking our own autonomy instead of saying Amen to all of the US' nasty diplomatic moves only reflects why we act the way we do as a country and as a nation and this is a view shared by the vast majority of Indians about the US, except for those shameless ones who wish to go to the US, get settled there and contribute to the growth of the US economy, all the while turning their backs on mother India, whatever their personal justifications may be.

iv) India a country of diversity reflected also in our national choices compared to a country of uniformity like the US:

     While many may argue the US is also a country of immigrants including the Indian diaspora living there aside from Germans, Spaniards, French-speaking Cajuns, Pennsylvania Germans, Amish etc. These are people who have largely been subjected to humongous pressure from the government of the United States to conform to a uniform way of life with American English as their main language sometimes to the point of giving up their own languages historically as it was the case with the Cajuns in Louisiana who nearly lost their unique variety of French which they and their ancestors had spoken and used way before the 1st non-French Europeans set foot on the United States by a whole century. India on the other hand is a country whose diversity is more open and vibrant, we in fact strive to celebrate and do celebrate our religious, cultural and linguistic diversity as a nation and as individual ethnic groups within that nation which is summarised by the saying "Unity in diversity" unlike in the US where ethnic and linguistic groups are forced to conform and even hide what makes them unique and special as diverse peoples (as if such a diversity were a shameful thing leading to deculturisation of ethnically diverse peoples in the US!) upon whom American English is foisted just as upon more modern immigrants to the US who are more likely to be looked at with discrimination by English speakers and are forced to speak only in English in public even with their own family members (just to help the monolingual anglophone Americans to understand their speech, although the questions and answers in the other languages are not even directed at the monolingual anglophone Americans) even if their respective languages are different like Spanish, German, French, Italian or even for Indians living in the US who may speak so many different languages including Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam among others and although educated Indians speak better English than most Americans!. While the US has bragging rights over India only in the area of upholding religious freedom for all groups (whereas BJP's India has fallen short in many rural areas in North and Central India with Hindutuva persecution of Christians for missionary work in stark contrast to Hindus in the US who are treated with dignity even as they seek converts to hinduism in the US), the US falls short of celebrating diversity in every other respect especially in the area of linguistic, cultural or ethnic diversity unlike in India where linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity is celebrated and even encouraged. This diversity within our nation and our celebration of that diversity only means that our national choices are bound to be just as diverse and not conformist as the US would want us to blindly nod our heads to their orders as we take orders from no other nation regarding our military and economic choices.

v) The need to protect our farmers from cheap GMOs with which the US agricultural sector is trying to flood our domestic market:

    India is basically an agrarian nation and all of the ethnic groups that make up our nation especially in the South of India but to a lesser degree also in the other parts of India like the North have been known to grow crops from time immemorial, way before the first Europeans ever set foot in the North American continent. Agriculture is therefore in our blood and it is a deep, innate part of who were are as a nation. Our farmers represent the lowest stratum of Indian society and yet they are engaged in the noble task of growing crops and feeding the rest of the nation including the more educated and affluent people who work in big industries. Therefore, if the farmer (or the fisherman) is affected, the rest of our nation suffers with them whence the need to protect our country from cheap GMOs with which the US is trying to flood our markets and no government in India can afford to let something like that happen. Already, farmers by virtue of being among those of the lowest stratum of India's economy are poor and have been known to commit suicide en masse, especially when monsoons fail or when there is excess rainfall leading to flooding of crop fields. Moreover, GMOs are known to cause all kinds of diseases when consumed by humans like different types of cancers - the result of messing around with the genetic make-up of crops in a bid to increase crop yields, make them resistant to pests or to get rid of certain traits common to all plants like bearing seeds. If cheap American GMO wheat grains find their way into the Indian market for instance, our local farmers would be affected and the mixing of the GMO genes with the local genes would mean that India's autonomy in the most crucial sector which is agriculture would be lost through legal means, since Washington would also gain control over genes that are specific to our Indian cultivars of wheat via mixing of their wheat cultivar genes with our domestic ones, wheat is the staple of people up North and allowing these GMOs inside is impermissible and unthinkable for any Indian, let alone the government of India or our farmers. Let us remember that Indian farmers are not the only ones resisting American GMO crop cultivars - farmers in France - a country that has its own crop cultivars specific to the nation for grains and vegetables have also been fighting a constant, unending battle against the US agricultural industry for all the reasons cited above, trying to make inroads into France's agricultural sector, thankfully the French government is supporting its farmers just like the Indian government is and should be standing up for our farmers no matter what happens.

vi) Milk and poultry industry in India - yet another crucial sector needing protection from unwanted US agricultural intrusion:

     Milk is crucial for all from babies to adults, the dairy industry of India and our poultry industries are therefore important sectors that need protection because US agricultural intrusion in these sectors means that Washington can not just affect India's agricultural sector adversely but can also influence our choice as a nation in the future, imagine being able to control the choices of a nation failing which its babies (and adults) will lack milk to drink!. It goes without saying that India's dairy sector is huge and hence cannot be exposed to the risk of foreign intrusion from the US or whichever nation seeking to undermine it. As for poultry, most of the meat products that Washington is trying to import to India are processed meat products for freezing etc. Anyone with a bit of knowledge in science will tell us that preservatives in meat are carcinogenic and as a nation, by default, most Indians who buy meat prefer fresh chicken meat, killed and packed in front of them in butchers' shops instead of going in for processed meats, since meat whether goat's meat or chicken is consumed almost immediately in India without storing in freezers for long, even if the US poultry industry touts the advantages of having industrial, processed meat over freshly cut meat at butchers' shops, most Indians prefer fresh meat to processed meats including chicken salamis among others which have unhealthy chemicals in them. Hence, while the poultry industry needs protection as well, even if US poultry products make their way into the Indian market, they will be wasted and just lying around in markets without many takers, since only a niche group of the Indian society would go in for processed meats which does not account for much pretty much like how many Indians would want to own a Harley Davidson. Although the latter is hyped and famous as a bike brand, its costs being high means that only rich people would want to purchase them but in the case of processed meat, most Indians are thankfully averse to the idea of consuming industrially processed meat packed with industrial chemicals known to cause cancers. Most Indians do not eat ducks regularly, so packaged duck meat making its way into the Indian market will also go to waste.

My thoughts regarding the current scenario:

     While Trump is trying to put America and his fellow citizens first in all his policies, it is only fair to state that all countries would want the same for their own people as per the saying "Live and let live", the problem arises when men and nations try to insinuate the idea that their own people and nation alone have the right to thrive and prosper at the expense of other nations and peoples while trampling the latter underfoot which is the treacherous aura exuded by Trump's America. If anyone is alluding to my failure to address the elephant in the room which is India buying Russian oil, means India funding the war against Ukraine. We need to point out that the US is the biggest importer of Russian goods too and would that not amount to the US funding Russia's war in Ukraine and what about China which imports more oil from Russia than India?, it looks like India is the US's convenient scapegoat for tariffs since China retaliated in like manner with respect to export of rare-earth elements to the US, not to mention that Zelensky was treated by Trump like crap when he sought to procure more US weapons against Russia earlier which Trump dismissed as something that could further increase the risk of WW-III, Zelensky was visibly irked by both Trump's and JD Vance's high-handed attitude during the meeting at the White House which was broadcast before the world, what happened to Trump's pro-Ukrainian feelings during that meeting, if Trump truly cared for Ukraine?. While some may say that there could be a deep-state between the US and its allies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia which is causing the current scenario with India. Whatever the case, the more Trump tries to increase tariffs on India, India would not buckle into the pressure, rather we will be forced to choose the highway and seek to sell our goods to other markets outside the US because India will NOT be pushed around by any country in the world seeking to assert its dominance arrogantly like the US is currently doing under the Trump leadership. Besides this, any increase in US tariffs on Indian exports to the US will only further deepen the rift between the US and India irreparably to such a point that India would not just have the confirmation that the US NEVER was a truthful economic or diplomatic partner from the start which further serves to back our Indian sentiments that we were truly right in diversifying our purchase of military hardware from many different nations (not just from the US) as well as having ties in many sectors with other countries besides the wrong image that Trump's US would give off to India and other nations about the US as a negotiating partner which is the spitting image of perfidy and fickleness. While India always wishes to have good relations with all nations, we are not a nation of pushovers who can be bullied and we will never tolerate that nonsense but act in favour of own interests as a nation.