New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Beleaguered with charges of capitulation and surrender before foreign forces, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday came up with a counter to blunt Opposition’s attack on the crude oil deal and shared ‘instructions’ from two erstwhile US Secretary of States including Hillary Clinton, directing multiple countries including India to cut down their volume of oil imports from Iran.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to social media to share how in 2012 (when Congress-led UPA was in power), seven nations in South-East Asia, including India, reduced their crude oil purchase from Iran for 180 days, apparently at the behest of America, failing which they would be subjected to sanctions. He also shared archival links of these directives from the then US Secretary of States, in 2012 and 2013, to substantiate his charge.
Malviya’s ‘disclosures’ come in the midst of an intense political firestorm over the Indian government’s alleged surrender to the Trump administration in buying cheap crude oil from Russia, India’s long-term and trusted ally.
Congress and Opposition leaders have gone on the offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the government, moments after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated publicly this morning that it has given a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil, in the wake of turmoil in the Middle East.
This set off a war of words between the Opposition and the ruling BJP, with the former calling it ‘total surrender’ by the Modi government while the latter lambasting the former for its ‘historical blunders’. Many Congress leaders also shared a video of Rahul Gandhi, from a recent address in Parliament, where he claimed that our oil purchases will be decided by America and can be accordingly cut down or stopped at the drop of a hat.
Countering the charge, Amit Malviya on his X handle, shared two instances from 2012 and 2013, when the then US Secretary of States unilaterally decided to cut down oil deliveries from Iran to at least 11 nations, including India.
Malviya, sharing a press statement dated June 11, 2012, by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote, “Today I have made the determination that seven economies—India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan–have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran. They join the 11 countries for which I made this determination in March. As a result, I will report to the Congress that sanctions pursuant to Section 1245(d)(1) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days.”
In another tweet, he shared statement by John Kerry, the then US Secretary of State in 2013 and wrote, “I am pleased to announce that China, India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Taiwan have again qualified for an exception to sanctions outlined in section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012, based on additional significant reductions in the volume of their crude oil purchases from Iran or for reducing those purchases to zero and remaining there.”
The digging out of these ‘uncomforting truths’ from the past is set to intensify the war of words between the BJP and the Opposition.
Opposition maintains that it’s because of the Indian government’s failed foreign policy that the US has the gumption to dictate terms to us. However, the fresh disclosures by the BJP come as a strong counter, while showing the mirror to the Opposition on its ‘duplicity’.
–IANS
mr/uk
