Economic terrorism

New Delhi: Yoga guru and Patanjali co-founder Baba Ramdev on Sunday lashed out US President Donald Trump over his decision to impose reciprocal tariffs, calling it an act of "tariff terrorism" and "economic terrorism." The yoga guru accused Trump of threatening poorer nations and attempting to dominate global trade through unfair policies.

"There is a new era of intellectual colonisation. Ever since Donald Trump rose to power, he created a new world record of 'tariff terrorism'. He has ripped off democracy by threatening poor and developing nations," Ramdev said.

"This is 'economic terrorism'... He is taking the world to a different era. In such a case, India needs to develop... All Indians should unite to build a strong nation and answer all these destructive powers."

His remarks come as India and the US engage in negotiations over a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), aimed at reducing trade barriers and strengthening economic ties.

Trump had claimed that India had agreed to significantly cut tariffs on American products, saying, "India charges us massive tariffs, you can't even sell anything in India, it's almost restrictive... By the way, they have agreed to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done."

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri refrained from commenting on Trump's statements, saying, "I will not get into that at this point of time because these are ongoing discussions, so it would not be right to get into it."