AICC draft resolution cites tariffs, criticises compromised foreign policy

A draft resolution expected to be adopted at the session of Congress’s central decision-making body in Ahmedabad on Wednesday refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in February and claims “we were publicly insulted” in his presence when US President Donald Trump called India a “tariff abuser”. It accuses the government of compromising on foreign policy at the altar of “individual branding” and “vested interests”.

The draft All India Congress Committee (AICC) resolution, a copy of which HT has seen, says the Opposition party remains a votary of close ties with the US but not at the expense of national interests.

India and the US agreed to start talks for an early trade deal when Trump and Modi met, hours after the US president decried the climate for American businesses in India and announced a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said India will prioritise its national interests while negotiating trade pacts with the US and other countries even as a top US trade official ruled out near-term exemptions from Trump’s sweeping global tariffs. The reassurance came amid ongoing negotiations with the US following the imposition of 26% additional tariffs on Indian exports.

The draft resolution cautions that further reduction in import duty against this backdrop would deal a serious blow to farmers and dynamic domestic automobile and pharmaceutical industries. It refers to the mistreatment of Indian migrants and says they were treated like animals and deported from the US in chains and handcuffs. “Unfortunately, even the External Affairs Minister [S Jaishankar] justified this inhumane treatment of our migrants by the US in the Parliament.”

Jaishankar in February told Parliament that the process of deportation was not new and it allows for the use of restraints on immigrants before they return to their home countries. The first set of deportees, mostly restrained, landed at the Amritsar airport 40 hours after they were put on a cramped military plane amid Trump’s sweeping undocumented immigration crackdown

The draft resolution calls India’s position in the neighbourhood worrisome and accuses the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of reducing foreign policy to weak-kneed leadership and helpless submission, adding it was unacceptable. It emphasises that the Congress-led government enhanced India’s global stature and demonstrated leadership on the world stage through a principled and visionary foreign policy.

“Our government’s foreign policy was always centred round protection of India’s interests, global balance of power, finding solutions through mutual harmony and dialogue, international co-operation and peaceful resolution of disputes.”

The draft blames the government for failing to restore the status quo ante with China in Ladakh. “China has illegally occupied nearly 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh, yet the current BJP Government, founded upon the rhetoric of showing ‘lal aankh’ [red eyes], has utterly failed to restore the status quo ante, as it existed prior to April 2020.” It calls China’s proposed construction of the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River an alarming development, particularly for Assam and other northeastern states.

The draft calls the return of “radical elements and zealots” in neighbouring Bangladesh a matter of serious concern. “...it has already created an unsafe environment for religious minorities,” it said, referring to the situation in Bangladesh following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s removal from power last year.

The draft refers to the large-scale humanitarian tragedy, bombing, and thousands of deaths of innocents in the Palestine-Israel conflict. It calls the non-committal silence on these important international developments a total disregard of long-established diplomatic principles.