Hours after making remarks that suggested India had conceded to U.S. sanction threats to stop buying oil from Iran and Russia, and accepted the U.S.’ tariff hikes, senior BJP and RSS leader Ram Madhav, retracted the comments, saying they were “factually incorrect”.  The comments, made at the Hudson Institute’s “New India Conference” held in Washington included debates between Indian and U.S. speakers, that focused on current problems in India-U.S. ties.

India’s purchase of Russian oil and the FTA negotiations were a salient theme, with former U.S. Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster criticising India for buying “a lot of oil” from Russia, while Indian opposition leader Priyanka Chaturvedi a former MP of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said purchasing energy was India’s “autonomous” decision, and should not be part of FTA talks.

“Where have we lagged behind?”, Mr. Madhav asked, questioning a U.S. expert who said that both India and the US needed to rebuild trust and work together on their concerns. “We (India) agreed to stop buying oil from Iran, we agreed to stop buying oil from Russia, despite facing so much criticism from the Indian opposition,” he added, saying that New Delhi had also maintained its patience over the U.S.’s 50% tariffs later reduced to 18% tariffs on Indian goods, both of which are higher than what they used to be. In a social media post some hours later, Mr. Madhav said that he said was wrong. “India didn’t agree to stopping import of oil from Russia anytime. Also it vigorously protested 50% tariff imposition,” adding that he had been making a counterpoint to the other panellist but his remarks were factually incorrect.