The Congress on Tuesday accused the Centre of outsourcing key policy decisions to Washington.
The criticism came after US President said that India is going to pay “massive tariffs” if it continues to buy oil from Russia. Trump also reiterated that PM Modi had assured him that New Delhi is going to halt its oil purchases from Moscow.
The Congress pointed out that US President Donald Trump has mentioned the issue three times in the past five days.
Trump, Congress noted, has also "brushed aside" the foreign ministry's claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi never promised him that India would stop Russian oil imports.
"The matter of India's imports of oil from Russia has been raised by President Trump now thrice in the past five days. And no doubt he will keep increasing this tally as he prepares to meet President (Vladimir) Putin in Budapest later in the week,” Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.
"President Trump says he has spoken to his good friend Mr Modi and India has promised to stop these imports. The MEA says that it is unaware of such conversations but President Trump has clearly brushed aside the MEA's attempts at denial."
Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One, Trump said India will continue to pay massive tariffs if it does not cease buying oil from Russia, adding that it (India) does not want to do that.
Trump was replying to a question about India's recent remarks on oil purchases from Russia.
Congress had earlier criticised Modi, calling him “mauni baba” whenever Trump states that he stopped Operation Sindoor or that India will reduce its oil imports from Russia.
The comment came after Trump repeated his claims that India will not be buying oil from Russia, saying that the country has already "de-escalated" and is "pulling back".
This was the second time that Trump has made such claims.
Ramesh, on Saturday, said Trump has yet again stated that he has been assured by his "good friend" that India will cut back on its imports of oil from Russia.
"But that good friend suddenly becomes a Mauni Baba whenever President Trump says he stopped Operation Sindoor and now when he says that India will reduce its imports of oil from Russia," Ramesh said in another post on X.
India on Thursday said it is "broad-basing and diversifying" its sourcing of energy to meet market conditions, hours after Trump claimed that PM Modi had assured him that New Delhi will stop procuring Russian crude oil.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, responding to questions on Trump's remarks that PM Modi made the assurance to him on Wednesday, said that no conversation between the two leaders took place.
He said that he was not aware of any such phone conversation, adding India's oil purchases are guided to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumers in a "volatile" energy scenario.
The Ministry iterated that its energy sourcing policy remains consistently focused on safeguarding the interests of Indian consumers amid a volatile global energy landscape.
“As per my information, there was no telephonic conversation between PM Modi and US President Trump yesterday,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while responding to a media query during his weekly briefing on Thursday.
The last phone conversation between Modi and Trump was on October 9, he added.
The Congress has alleged that PM Modi is "frightened" of Trump and appears to have outsourced key decisions to the US.
The opposition party had also alleged that the foreign policy of the Modi government has "completely collapsed" and said the Centre must take opposition leaders into confidence by either calling an all-party meeting or speaking to them one-on-one.
Washington has been maintaining that India is helping Putin finance the Ukraine war through its purchase of Russian crude oil.
US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro had earlier accused New Delhi of running a “profiteering scheme”.
Since the 2022 Ukraine conflict, India has significantly increased its purchases of discounted Russian crude and has also been refining it for exporting, an arrangement Navarro called a “laundromat for the Kremlin,” though India maintains that it has done so under US advice.
The relations between New Delhi and Washington have been reeling under severe stress after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duty for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.
India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".
(With inputs from PTI)
