'Yes, he's right': Rahul Gandhi backs Trump on 'India is a dead economy' claim

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha (Upper house in Indian Parliament) backed US President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks calling India a “dead economy". He blamed the Centre for refusing to acknowledge the reality and said that 'everybody knows the fact' that Indian economy is in shambles.

“Yes, he is right. Everybody knows this except the Prime Minister and the finance minister. Everybody knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy. I am glad that President Trump has stated a fact... The entire world knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy. The BJP has finished the economy to help Adani," said Gandhi to the media.

He went on to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of killing the Indian economy and only helping business houses like the Adanis.

“PM Modi works only for one person: Adani. This (India-US trade) deal will take place, and PM Modi will do exactly what Trump says. The main issue sitting in front of India today is that the government has destroyed our economy, defence and foreign policy. They are running this country into the ground.”

US President Donald Trump after announcing a 25 per cent tariff on India on Wednesday (July 30) took to Truth Social and said US has done “very little” business with India, with very high tariffs and slammed the Indian and Russian economies as “dead”.

“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. 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, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!", Trump wrote.

Trump earlier reiterated that the US has “massive trade deficit with India.” While acknowledging India as a “friend,” Trump criticised the country for maintaining excessively high tariffs and what he described as “obnoxious” non-monetary trade barriers, which he claimed have hindered US–India trade for years.