Social media users fact-check Peter Navarro’s ‘India’s Russian oil trade’ comment on X

Washington: White House Advisor Peter Navarro had a meltdown on Sunday after one of his posts targeting India on its Russian oil purchase was flagged by a community note on X.

However, this time he was fact-checked by a community of X users, who said that the oil trade was “for energy security, not just profit”, adding that it didn’t violate any sanctions.

Navarro had targeted India’s trade with Russia, alleging that it was “purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine”.

“While India has some tariffs, the US has a trade surplus with it in services. US also continues to import certain commodities from Russia which is hypocritical,” the note also said.

Dismissing the community note as “crap”, Navarro lashed out at Elon Musk for “letting propaganda into people’s posts”, and yet again accused India of profiteering from the oil trade with Russia.

“That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer. It didn’t buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine. Indian govt spin machine moving high tilt. Stop killing Ukranians. Stop taking American jobs,” Navarro wrote.

In a post on X on Friday (US local time), Navarro made the remarks in response to an article by the Washington Post, which described the conflicting efforts in Trump’s administration over mending the relationship with India.

Trump appeared to backtrack from his previous remark about “losing” India to China. At a White House press conference on Friday, Trump said, “I’ll always be friends” with Prime Minister Modi” and called him a “great Prime Minister.” Hours after this comment, Indian PM Modi reciprocated on Saturday by saying that he appreciates and fully reciprocates President Trump’s sentiments.

“He’s a great Prime Minister. He’s great. I’ll always be friends but I just don’t like what he is doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. There’s nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasions,” he added.

Hours after Trump’s remarks, Indian PM Modi reciprocated by posting on his X handle, “Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership.”

PM Modi’s comments came hours after President Trump took a positive view when asked whether he blamed anyone for “losing India to China” and he responded saying, “I don’t think we have.”

The remarks follow a wave of intensified rhetoric against India from the Trump administration and supporters.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday rejected Navarro’s continuous tirade against India, terming his remarks as “inaccurate and misleading statements”.

“We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Mr. (Peter) Navarro and obviously, we reject them”, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly media briefing while responding to a question on Navarro’s “Brahmins profiting” remarks.

The trade advisor’s controversial remarks, made while defending US President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, were labelled as “casteist” and “sinister” by analysts and caused a massive outrage in India.

The MEA spokesperson, however, reiterated that the relationship between India and the United States remains “very important” for New Delhi.

“India and the United States share a comprehensive global strategic partnership which is anchored in our shared interests, democratic values, and robust people-to-people ties. This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges before. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that the two countries have committed to, and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect, and shared interests,” said Jaiswal.

Earlier this week, Navarro had criticised India’s foreign policy, questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent engagements with the Russian and Chinese leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, and declaring that “India needs to be with us, not Russia”.

In an interview with IANS, Edward Price, a political economist and former head of Economic Policy in the British Consulate General in New York, had slammed Navarro’s continuous tirade against India, calling it a “shame”.

Price asserted that Navarro’s attempt to “instruct” a sovereign nation like India entirely misses the point of diplomacy.

“It is also historically illiterate. India has always gone its own way, culturally, politically and otherwise. It is a unique country with a unique statecraft. We shouldn’t be telling India what to do. We should be making it a fair and friendly offer,” he added.

IANS