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US President Donald Trump shared on social media the transcript of remarks made by an American political commentator on birthright citizenship in the US on 22 Apr. The transcript termed India among 'hellhole' countries and Indians in the US as ‘laptop-wielding charlatans’. The remarks were made by Michael Savage, an author and political commentator, on US-based TV channel Newsmax when he claimed, 'A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.' On 23 Apr, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, 'The remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate, and in poor taste. They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests.' Later in the day, the spokesperson for the US Embassy in New Delhi Christopher Elms said Trump has described India as a 'great country with a very good friend of mine at the top'. The remark comes on the back of the US ordering India to stop Russian oil imports in February 2026 jeopardizing India’s international image. Parallelly, on 25 Apr, speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, US former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary and BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Ram Madhav said, 'We agreed to stop buying oil from Iran and Russia...We agreed to 50% tariffs…In the new trade deal also, we agreed to 18% tariffs.' Madhav argued that the three pillars underpinning the India-US relationship—geostrategic alignment, economic ties and people-to-people engagement—were all under stress. 'We don’t understand what the geostrategic priorities of the US government are now. Not just we, even NATO, Europeans and the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue don’t understand it.' A coalition of US-based civil rights and advocacy organizations such as The Sikh Coalition, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Hindus for Human Rights, and others have condemned the Hudson Institute for platforming leaders of RSS, an organization that a US congressionally-mandated federal panel—USCIRF—has called to be sanctioned for its role in persecution of religious minorities in India. The coalition said the decision to host RSS leaders raises serious concerns not only about human rights but also about US national security (earlier coverage).
RSS & BJP leader Ram Madhav Photo by Indian Express
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