Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s favourite tariff warrior, has a gift for provocation. He has now dipped into India’s caste politics to explain why Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is, in his telling, “bankrolling” Russia’s war machine with oil purchases.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Navarro – the man who once dreamed up a “Ron Vara” trade expert (who turned out to be fictional) – declared that “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.” To add spice, he called India the “maharaja of tariffs” and wondered aloud why Modi, “a great leader,” was cosying up to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping.

That was enough to send Indian commentariot on X and TV news in a tizzy.

On NewsX, the anchor warned that Indian-Americans who once voted Republican were “boiling in their stomachs”. “Let’s dial it down.” 

Over on NDTV, Shiv Aroor cracked that party headquarters across India were probably scrambling to figure out who would be the first to weaponise the “Brahmin” jab. “I think there are probably meetings going on in party headquarters right now. Who will pick it up and say, ‘Dekha, we told you…’”

Sanjeev Sanyal, on the PM’s economic advisory council, tried to take the scholarly route to claim Edward Said’s work applied more to India. “This is derived directly from 19th century colonial jibes going back to the likes of James Mill. Edward Said's point about Orientalism is perhaps more correct for India than his original thesis on Middle East.” 

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, never one to miss a jab at the Opposition, translated Navarro’s words into a Rahul Gandhi script. “America says Brahmins are benefiting from Russian oil. Who is buying this oil? Is Modi ji a Brahmin? Are the private company owners Brahmins? Looks like Rahul Gandhi’s ignorance has reached America. And if America really wants to talk Brahmins, it should look at Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Indra Nooyi — all CEOs of American companies.”

TMC MP Sagarika Ghose went for a vocabulary lesson reposted by ANI: “‘Boston Brahmin’ was once a term for America’s New England elite. Brahmin in English often just means ‘elite.’ The illiteracy on X is astonishing.”

Sena spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi was less forgiving. “Peter Navarro’s Invocation of a particular caste identity in India to make his point, even if it is to imply the ‘privileged lot’ vis a vis the rest , is shameful and sinister. PS: spare me sermons on usage of the word Brahmins  in American context,” she wrote.

There were some memes about Brahmins wondering why Navarro brought them into this.

Pakistan’s former US envoy and journalist Hussain Haqqani couldn’t resist either: “Someone needs to tell him that Ambanis are not Brahmins.”

The only thing everyone seemed sure of was that Navarro himself is still running a trade deficit with reality.

Complaining about the media is easy. Why not do something to make it better? Support independent media and subscribe to Newslaundry today.