From US Weapons to Nuclear Liability, How Modi Govt Has Turned Its Back on India to Appease Trump

When Narendra Modi called US president Donald Trump to congratulate him after the latter took charge in January this year, Trump's curt reply was: ‘Buy more weapons from US.’

Since then, Trump and his aides have gone on insisting that India must shift away from Russia and choose the US as its main arms supplier. 

The theme was repeated in a joint statement after Modi ran to visit Trump in February. The two leaders welcomed ‘the significant integration of the US defence items into India’s’. The military hardware included: C-130J Super Hercules, C-17 Globemaster III, P-81 Poseidon aircraft, CH-47F Chinooks, MH-60R Seahawks, and MQ-9Bs.

The US gave a long list of similar integrations already in process. Among them were the new procurement and coproduction of Javelin anti-tank guided missiles, Stryker infantry combat vehicles and six additional P-81 maritime patrol aircraft. 

Another one of Trump’s conditions to which Modi agreed in February was that India buy more US arms and equipment. This was purportedly intended to reduce the US trade deficit with India. In the potential shopping list: fighter jets (Trump mentioned the F-35), the P-81 Poseidon, helicopters and other US military systems. 

All of this openly figures in the joint statement and individual briefings. Now Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary, discloses that Modi may have also agreed to stop buying arms from Russia and tie India fully to the US. “That is a way to kind of get under the skin of America if you go to buy your armament from Russia. India is starting to move towards buying military equipment from US,” Lutnick said at the India-US Strategic Partnership Forum. 

Lutnick is a multi-billionaire tycoon holding a top position in the US administration and a trusted aid of Trump. He is the counterpart of Piyush Goyal in India and familiar with the strategic and trade negotiations with this country. The central point in Lutnick’s address was that India should stop buying arms from its time-tested ally and attach itself to the US and its military allies.

He also made another point – that India had agreed to delink itself from the BRICS alliance and stop the move to end the dollar's hegemony. “So the president calls that out specifically and directly, and the Indian government is addressing it specifically and directly,” he said, putting it in no uncertain terms.

The joint statement released by the White House on February 13 corroborates Lutnick’s assumptions. It devotes the first six paragraphs to the defence integration, purchases, co-development and co-production of defence equipment with India. Another eight paragraphs (15 to 22) deal with closer defence-related collaboration.  

All this provides conclusive evidence of a deep and troubling defence partnership with the US. Even analysts believed to be close to the BJP like former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal have regretted the way New Delhi is giving up control of its foreign policy, but the Modi government has maintained a stoic silence about the strategic shift.

This is an issue which Modi must therefore clarify, as citizens have a right to know what exactly is happening. Has India really decided to halt further arms deals with Russia as Lutnick claims? Have we abandoned the tested and tried policy of strategic autonomy and latched ourselves on to Washington and its military bloc?

The visible strategic shift is further confirmed by data put out recently by sections of the mainstream media. As per this report, defence imports from Russia have steeply fallen from a 76% share  in 2009 to just 36% last year. Earlier, plans to manufacture helicopters and advanced fighter jets with Russia were also shelved. 

On the other hand, signalling a tectonic pro-US shift, India has since 2018 signed contracts worth $20 billion for US-made defence equipment. In addition, India recently approved a $3 billion deal for 31 long-range drones. There is also the HAL-GE deal for the coproduction of the engine for a next generation fighter aircraft. All this began after Modi’s 2023 visit to the US. 

All this has been part of a calculated strategy which was never really revealed to Indian citizens. Information is given out in bits and pieces without any one questioning the pros and cons. The mainstream media, so used to lapping up daily handouts from the Prime Minister's Office without any questioning, has tamely carried the government version. 

Media debates on official policies, which has been a part of India’s liberal identity, have been abandoned since 2014. Consider the free and fair debates on television and print before every policy change in the past. During the UPA government, for years, we debated the nuclear deal with the US. Every day, views and counter views came up and Manmohan Singh had a tough time prevailing. 

Similar was the course of events during the Kargil war and when it came to allowing US ships at Indian ports during the Iraq war under the Chandrashekhar government. For years, we discussed the virtues of non-alignment and strategic autonomy. Pre-Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party was an ardent advocate of strategic autonomy which the dominant Swadeshi group under K.S. Sudarshan considered an essential part of their 'cultural nationalism'. 

Now, the Modi-Shah duo has dumped all such tradition and imposed several tectonic policy reversals on the nation, behind its back. 

Nuclear deal, behind closed doors now

Nuclear liability is an area where it is clear that Modi has surrendered to Trump’s diktats. Accordingly, his finance minister, in her budget speech this year, announced the government's decision to amend the nuclear liability law, paving the way for the setting up of plants based on untested designs.

Two weeks later, during his meeting with Trump on February 14, 2025, Modi formally conveyed the announcement in parliament and assured follow up action. On April 17, the government again said it will exempt private foreign firms’ from liability in case of an accident. US firms will be the primary beneficiary of this shift.

India's parliament had, on August 20, 2010, passed the The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010,  with the support of the BJP which was then in the opposition. This was seven months before the Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011 but had provided adequate safeguards by allowing for supplier liability in case accidents are traced back to design or production glaws. All such safeguards are now being scrapped to appease Trump.

And now trade and tariff concessions

Meanwhile, India is also under pressure to to buy more crude and petroleum products and liquified gas from the US. Modi’s India has been insisting that the US treat it on par with other allies like UK, Australia and Japan in critical technology sectors like artificial intelligence, telecoms, biotech, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. This is aimed at further integrating India with the US.

In the midst of the trade talks in Washington, Trump dropped a bomb shell. He announced his decision to raise tariffs from 25% to 50% on steel and aluminium imports. This had negated all ongoing discussions and thus evoked worldwide protests. 

Canada’s Chamber of Commerce called it ‘antithetical to North American economic security’. The European Commission threatened to retaliate against US. The Australian government described Trump’s unilateral decision as unjustified. 

Even in India where the business organisations have been forced into silence on government policies, some sections have for the first time came out to protest. The Engineering Exports Promotion Council and Federation of Indian Exports Organisations came out condemning the US decision.

Trump’s governance style and the kind of forces he inspires have an altogether different subtext. The monopolist oligarchy which backs him, at least as it is now, is built on the foundation of populist sentiments of the working classes as well as business. Look at the support he got from workers of steel and aluminium plants and business barons.

Second, historically, capitalism has thrived on improved production, expansion of markets and competition. As against this, Trump seems to have adopted a reverse process — of protective, populist and buccaneer capitalism. 

What emerges is a frightening scenario. It should give sleepless nights to those who value India’s strategic sovereignty, India’s large cooperative dairies which provide livelihood to millions of rural population, and its already suffering farmers. The government’s evasive reassurances amid secrecy have only heightened their concerns. 

Leaders of the cooperative dairy sector fear the US will flood the Indian market with its vast surpluses. India is the world’s largest milk producer. The sector provides livelihood to 80 million farmers.      

In India, 'right to food' campaigners and civil society groups had protested on the occasion of the US vice-president J.D. Vance's visit to India in April.  

The US is pressing for tariff cuts on practically all of its surplus farm products: soya bean, wheat, cotton, seafood, poultry (chicken legs) livestock feed, ethanol, fruits and nuts. There is another category: almonds, cranberries, quinoa, oatmeal, pistachio and walnuts. In the case of the last item, India has agreed to substantially reduce the tariffs 

US pressure on genetically modified crops is another problem. GM food is banned in India, and the US insistence on such items will in time, require basic policy changes. 

The US is also forcing India to import its large surplus of corn to be used as ethanol for blending with gasoline. At present this is not allowed in India.

Tailpiece: In a smart move to re-establish its strained relationship with Trump, the Modi establishment has hired his senior advisor Jason Miller as India’s lobbyist in Washington. 

P. Raman is a veteran journalist and political commentator.

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