'Modi's hands are tied': Rahul says PM can't stand up to Trump due to US probe into Adani

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot stand up to US President Donald Trump despite his repeated threats due to "the ongoing US investigation into Adani".

The Leader of Opposition's remarks came after Trump said India has not been a good trading partner and announced that he will raise the tariffs on New Delhi "very substantially" over the next 24 hours because it is buying Russian oil.

In a post on X, Gandhi said, "India, please understand: The reason PM Modi cannot stand up to President Trump despite his repeated threats is the ongoing U.S. investigation into Adani." "One threat is to expose the financial links between Modi, AA, and Russian oil deals. Modi's hands are tied," Gandhi alleged.

There was no immediate reaction from the government or the Adani Group on Gandhi's claims.

Billionaire Gautam Adani, 63, and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar, who is director at the group's renewable energy unit Adani Green Energy Ltd, have been accused of paying about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, according to an indictment unsealed in a New York court in November last year.

Earlier this week, Trump had said he will substantially raise US tariffs on India, accusing the country of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits.

Hours later, India had mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their "unjustified and unreasonable" targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.

Firmly rejecting the criticism, India pointed out the double standards in targeting it on the issue and said both the US and the EU are continuing their trade relations with Russia.

On Tuesday, Trump also said he doesn't know anything about the US imports of Russian uranium, fertilisers and chemicals.

Trump made the comments on Tuesday while responding to a question on India's statement on American imports of these commodities.