Baba Ramdev, yoga guru and the co-founder of FMCG giant Patanjali, lambasted US President Donald Trump on Sunday, saying the latter has been promoting “tariff terrorism”. Referring to the US president’s push to impose reciprocal tariffs on other nations, Ramdev claimed Trump has been bullying the poor and developing nations by unleashing a new “era of intellectual colonisation”.
“There is a new era of intellectual colonization. Amid this, ever since Donald Trump rose to power, he created a new world record of ‘tariff terrorism’. He has ripped off democracy by threatening poor and developing nations… This is ‘economic terrorism’… He is taking the world to a different era… In such a case, India needs to develop… All Indians should unite to build a strong nation and answer all these destructive powers,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI in Maharashtra’s Nagpur.
He said amid dangerous situations, India needs to become developed as some powerful nations want to take the world towards destruction.
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Since taking office less than two months ago, Trump has rolled out hefty import taxes on goods coming from America’s three biggest trading partners — Mexico, Canada and China.
However, after talks, Trump granted a one-month exemption on his new tariffs impacting goods from Mexico and Canada for US automakers. He plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2.
Trump’s on-and-off tariff announcements sparked uncertainty in the global financial markets, including in India, leading to volatility.
Ramdev slams vandalism at a Hindu temple in the US
Ramdev on Sunday condemned vandalism at a Hindu temple in California and said India should take the initiative in finding a way to curb “religious terrorism”.
“The entire world is suffering due to this religious terrorism. All the heads of different countries need to find a way out of this, and India should take an initiative for this,” he told PTI.
To another question pertaining to Aurangzeb, Ramdev said the Mughal king could not be an ideal for the people of India.
“He belonged to a family of robbers. Be it Babur or his family, they came to loot India. They tortured thousands of our women. They cannot be our ideals…Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is our ideal,” he added.
With inputs from agencies