THE role of US, and specifically of President Donald Trump, is assuming the spectacle of ‘bulldozer’. In India, we are now familiar with the unilateral deployment of ‘bulldozers’ to trample legitimate rights of the weak and the defenceless. In a majoritarian ambience, such display of naked aggression finds loud approval from the bhakt brigade in the social media space. But, to experience a similar syndrome in the global sphere can only mean a severe loss of political and strategic autonomy. This is detrimental to national sovereignty.

This is precisely what has been happening for quite some time in relation to India’s engagements with the outside world. This came to be underlined explicitly in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent military engagement with Pakistan. President Trump’s unilateral announcement of military disengagement was violative of the Indian claim that it resulted from careful consideration by both, India and Pakistan. However, even before the two sides officially made the outcome public, President Trump’s out of turn announcement brazenly violated the principle that the Indian establishment claims to be sacrosanct even now – the refusal to third party intervention in matters bilateral.

For some time now, it has been increasingly clear that India’s foreign policy is becoming a prisoner to overriding demands of the US, even more brazenly under the Modi government. The stark proof of this was the India-US Trade Deal on agriculture, regulation, digital policy and security alignment. This was further reinforced by the content of the official US document titled ‘Presidential Actions Modifying Duties to Address Threats to the United States by the Government of the Russian Federation, Executive Orders’ issued on February 6, 2026.

Though the framework of the India-US Trade Deal was released officially by both the US and the Indian governments in the early hours of February 7, 2026, it will be nursing our illusion if these documents are divorced from the medium term and immediate backdrop facing India’s challenges in global trade.

In recent global debates India has been sought to be portrayed as the ‘tariff king’ for its trade policies in agriculture. However, if global agricultural protection measures including tariffs were viewed as a whole, the prime examples of protectionism including the steepest and impenetrable walls of tariffs, subsidies and unfair non-tariff barriers, would belong to the rich countries. With a steadily decreasing share of agriculture in the GDP, yet without any significant reduction in the proportion of people depending on it, any global engagement cannot be construed as negotiable items of trade; but essentially a livelihood issue for millions of small and marginal farmers engaged in petty production. However, even the modest efforts to protect Indian farmers through the subsidy regime and food security imperatives, have been vilified as trade distorting ‘tariff and non-tariff barriers’.

Reality, however, is entirely different. If India’s average agricultural tariffs of 39 per cent are demonised as excessive, the developed countries are undisputed champions of protection. The US was imposing tariffs of over 188 per cent on cereals and dairy products. Based on such a canard, the build up to the ‘tariff terror’ initiated by the US premised on the complaint that India has a trade surplus of $45 billion, unsustainable levels of 25 per cent tariff was announced which was subsequently hiked to 50 per cent to punish India’s import of oil and gas from Russia.

The facts are clear. While Indian tariff for US goods was between 0 to 3 per cent, tariffs on Indian products which were exported to US has now been hiked to 18 per cent as against the proposed 50 per cent. It is already palpable that in certain sectors like tree nuts and dried distillers’ grains to red sorghum, fresh and processed fruit, the US-India agreement will provide new market access for American products. This was actually underlined by the US Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins while thanking Trump “for once again delivering for our American farmers. The new US-India deal will export more farm products to India’s massive markets, lifting prices and pumping cash into rural area. In 2024, America’s agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion. India’s growing population is an important market for American agricultural products and today’s deal will go a long way to reducing this deficit. American first victory on top of the dozens of deals for agriculture”, not to mention their massively subsidised nature.

In fact, even before Rollins, Trump had tweeted about the content of his telephonic conversation with Modi on February 2 and hinted at the Prime Minister’s acceptance. For five days the Indian establishment maintained a benign silence while the Indian Parliament was in session. It is another matter that even now the Indian government has not attempted any rebuttal. On the contrary, all the claims by the US unilateral assertions have been reflected in the official text of the framework of the trade deal as well as in the presidential announcement for executive action.

Apart from the actions covered by the deal, India’s commitment to purchase $500 billion worth of oil and other US products over the next five years is the surest proof of the absolute undermining of autonomy. Despite the attempt to peddle the disruption of purchase of cheaper oil from Russia as diversification, Modi has given consent for purchase of obviously more expensive US oil, and perhaps as Trump hopes, from Venezuela. The assured purchase from US would also include aviation and defence products. In one stroke, India’s trade surplus of $45 billion will be drastically reversed with the $100 billion annual imports from the US. The presidential actions have also put in place a specific monitoring mechanism which will ensure the compliance to this arrangement and link it to the threat of subsequent upward revision of the overall tariffs, in the event of failure.

It was a shameful expression of self-congratulation when the government and the BJP garlanded the Prime Minister for the great victory achieved in the negotiation of the trade deal. However, an avid reading of the text of the approved documents by both sides, along with the unilateral presidential executive order underlines a complete capitulation of the absolute asymmetry in the India-US relationship, while further dovetailing it to the overall US strategic game plan.

(February 11, 2026)