The Indian National Congress today is no longer driven by ideology, policy alternatives, or even electoral arithmetic. It is driven by a singular obsession: Narendra Modi. In that blind pursuit of political vendetta, the party appears willing to undermine India’s credibility, dignity, and global standing—careless of the fact that it is simultaneously eroding whatever little trust it retains among its remaining 10–15 percent voter base.
The clearest proof of this obsession lies in the Congress leadership and its senior functionaries treating former US President Donald Trump with unwarranted seriousness. Fully aware that the rest of the world—his own Republican Party included—does not vouch for his consistency, Congress nevertheless chooses to elevate Trump’s claims as political gospel. Donald Trump, whose public record is littered with exaggerations, reversals, and self-glorifying fantasies, has repeatedly claimed—over 80 times by some counts—that he “stopped” a war between India and Pakistan. This assertion has been categorically rejected by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, dismissed by strategic analysts, and contradicted by the factual sequence of events following the Balakot airstrikes in 2019. Yet, instead of standing with India’s official position, the Congress leadership has chosen to amplify Trump’s claims, weaponising them as political ammunition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The latest provocation is Trump’s astonishing claim that Prime Minister Modi “begged” for an audience during a phone conversation. It is a statement so absurd, so disconnected from diplomatic protocol and India’s global standing, that only two kinds of people could possibly take it seriously: those unfamiliar with international diplomacy, or those desperate to undermine India’s Prime Minister at any cost.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and his party colleagues wasted no time in lapping it up, presenting Trump’s words as a national humiliation and blaming Modi for it. The question that naturally arises is: since when did the Congress party begin treating Donald Trump as a more credible authority than India’s own government?
The Congress party’s sudden discovery of “national insult” would carry more weight if it were not burdened by its own historical record. Have Kharge and his colleagues forgotten the visual memory of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh standing meekly beside US Presidents, presiding over a foreign policy that was deferential to the point of submission?
The Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal—often projected as a diplomatic triumph—came at the cost of India publicly bending its long-held strategic autonomy, inviting domestic political chaos, and triggering allegations of external pressure and internal arm-twisting. Wikileaks cables later painted an unflattering picture of how pliable the UPA government appeared to Washington. That was the era when “strategic partnership” often meant strategic compliance.
Contrast that with Narendra Modi’s India—an India that speaks to the US as an equal, not as a supplicant. Whether it was standing firm on CAATSA sanctions while purchasing the Russian S-400 missile system, refusing to be browbeaten on energy imports, or asserting India’s independent position on global conflicts, Modi’s foreign policy has been marked by clarity, confidence, and credibility.
Globally, Trump’s statements are increasingly viewed with skepticism—even within his own Republican Party. He has claimed credit for stopping “eight wars,” lamented the denial of a Nobel Peace Prize, and oscillated wildly on foreign policy positions. Only days ago, he reportedly made extraordinary threats against Venezuela’s leadership, spoke of “abductions,” and boasted about coercive actions against smaller nations—language more befitting a reality show than a former head of state.
Yet, while world capitals treat Trump’s pronouncements with caution, India’s Opposition treats them as gospel truth. This selective belief system raises uncomfortable questions about political intent.
A growing section of political commentators has long argued that the Congress party appears more invested in international echo chambers than in India’s national consensus. Its repeated alignment with narratives pushed by foreign think tanks, activist NGOs, and global pressure groups hostile to India’s internal political choices has not gone unnoticed.
Allegations regarding the influence of transnational activist networks—often grouped under the umbrella term “deep state”—may be contested, but the pattern is difficult to ignore. From amplifying Western media criticisms of India’s democratic processes to echoing foreign-funded NGO narratives, the Congress frequently appears more comfortable globalising India’s internal politics than defending the nation’s sovereign decisions.
It is in this context that repeated references to organisations linked to controversial global financiers like George Soros gain political traction. Whether or not these claims withstand scrutiny, the optics of senior Congress figures sharing ideological space with groups openly hostile to India’s elected government only deepen public mistrust.
The reality remains unchanged: Narendra Modi enjoys the confidence of a decisive majority of Indians because he has consistently demonstrated that India will neither bend nor beg. Under his leadership, India has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, a net exporter of defence equipment, a decisive player in the Quad, and a nation whose voice matters in global forums.
This rise in stature is precisely what unsettles the Congress. A self-assured India leaves no room for the politics of dependency and grievance that defined six decades of Congress rule—decades that kept India inward-looking, economically constrained, and diplomatically hesitant.
When the Congress chooses to believe Donald Trump over India’s Prime Minister, it is not merely attacking Modi—it is casting doubt on India’s institutions, diplomacy, and national self-respect. That is not opposition politics; it is political abdication.
India does not need validation from an erratic former US President, nor does it need a domestic Opposition that treats foreign disparagement as political opportunity. What the nation needs is unity on matters of sovereignty—and the wisdom to distinguish between legitimate criticism and opportunistic sabotage.
If Congress truly wishes to reclaim relevance, it must first decide where its trust lies: with India’s electorate—or with the shifting narratives of foreign power centres.
