Former diplomat and author Vikas Swarup has said that one of the key reasons behind Washington’s punitive tariffs on New Delhi is US President Donald Trump’s displeasure with India over two issues — its membership of BRICS and refusal to acknowledge his claimed role in brokering peace with Pakistan.
The former High Commissioner to Canada said Trump views BRICS as an anti-American alliance working to create an alternative to the US dollar, and believes India should not be a member. The second reason, Swarup noted, was New Delhi’s rejection of Trump’s repeated assertions that he mediated a truce between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Operation Sindoor. India has consistently maintained that no third party was involved in the ceasefire process, which was negotiated directly between the armed forces of both countries.
“Trump has now said almost 30 times that it was he who stopped a nuclear conflagration in the subcontinent. He is miffed that India has not acknowledged his role, whereas Pakistan has not only done so but even nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize,” Swarup said.
He added that Trump, who brands himself as a dealmaker, sees himself as a global peacemaker and is keen to outdo Barack Obama, the only US president to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.
On trade, Swarup lauded New Delhi for not giving in to American pressure to open its agriculture and dairy markets or allow genetically modified crops. He described Trump’s tariffs as pressure tactics, warning that the measures will raise inflation in the United States itself. “The US called India a ‘Tariff King’, but now it has become the Tariff King of the world,” he remarked.
Swarup also said Washington’s growing tilt towards Pakistan is a tactical and short-term move, driven by financial interests such as cryptocurrency ventures involving Trump’s associates. He stressed that US-India ties remain strategic and resilient, adding: “This is a storm, not a rupture. All storms eventually pass.”