Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday strongly criticised US President Donald Trump’s aide Peter Navarro for invoking the word Brahmin in the Indian context, arguing that it was a deliberate and politically loaded remark rather than an innocent reference. She noted that while she was aware of the “Boston Brahmins” usage in American history, Navarro’s choice of words about India could not have come “out of the blue”.
Taking to social media, Chaturvedi wrote that a senior White House adviser invoking caste in the Indian context was neither casual nor accidental. She labelled Navarro’s comments “shameful and sinister,” pushing back against Opposition leaders who downplayed the reference as an Americanism.
Her remarks came after leaders like Saket Gokhale of the TMC and Karti Chidambaram of the Congress defended Navarro’s phrasing by pointing to New England’s historical use of “Brahmin” to describe wealthy elites. Gokhale noted that Navarro hails from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the phrase Boston Brahmin refers to old-money families, while Chidambaram suggested that netizens had overreacted.
Chaturvedi, however, maintained that Navarro’s comments carried deliberate intent, especially amid worsening India-US trade ties. “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,” she said.
The controversy erupted after Navarro, in a Fox News interview, claimed that “Brahmins in India are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people and this needs to stop.” While he described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “great leader,” Navarro questioned his cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He accused India of refining cheap Russian crude and reselling it at high margins, branding the country a “laundromat for the Kremlin.”
Navarro further escalated his rhetoric by calling India the “maharaja of tariffs” and alleging that its actions were indirectly “killing Ukrainians” by financing Moscow’s war effort. He has previously described the Russia-Ukraine war as “Modi’s war,” accused India of being a “strategic freeloader,” and even mocked Modi’s spiritual image, posting a photo of him meditating in saffron robes.
India has consistently rejected US criticism of its Russian oil imports, arguing that its purchases are dictated by national interest and energy security needs. Since sanctions on Moscow began, Russia has become New Delhi’s top crude supplier, helping stabilise India’s domestic energy market.
