'Absolutely not': Shashi Tharoor rejects Trump's dead economy remark

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday rejected US President Donald Trump's India a "dead economy" remark, saying this was not the case.

Trump called India a "dead economy", sparking a political firestorm in India, hours after he announced a 25 per cent tariff on import of Indian goods along with an unspecified "penalty" for buying "vast majority" of Russian military equipment and crude oil.

Asked by reporters in the Parliament House complex whether the Indian economy is "dead", Tharoor said, "No, no, absolutely not, you know it." Earlier, Tharoor refused to comment on the US tariff issue, saying he had said what he had to on the issue on Thursday.

Significantly, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday echoed Trump's criticism of the Indian economy and said everybody except Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman knows that the country's economy is "dead".

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also alleged that the BJP-led government has destroyed the country's economic, defence and foreign policies, and is "running the country to the ground".

With the US announcing the imposition of 25 per cent tariff and penalties on India, Tharoor on Thursday said it may be just a "bargaining tactic" as trade negotiations are on, asserting that "we must give strong support to our negotiators" to find the best possible deal.

Tharoor, however, added that if a good deal is not possible, "we may have to walk away".