‘Hug hug na raha’: Cong after Lutnick’s trade deal remarks

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday took a Bollywood-tinged swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the trade deal with India did not happen because PM Modi did not call US President Donald Trump.

Posting a video of Lutnick’s remarks, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “Hug hug na raha, post post na raha.”

In his Bollywood-tinged taunt aimed at Modi, Ramesh added, “Kya se kya ho gaya, bewafa teri dosti mein.”

While this was a play on the hit number with similar lyrics from the Dev Anand-starrer film ‘Guide’ (1965), the other was a play on the song ‘Dost dost na raha’ from the 1964 film “Sangam” by Raj Kapoor.

The swipe came after Lutnick said the trade deal with India did not happen because Prime Minister Modi did not call Trump.

In an interview with the All-in Podcast on Thursday, Lutnick detailed how the India-US trade deal has not happened till now. “I’ll tell you a story about India. I did the first deal with the UK, and we told the UK that they had to get it done by two Fridays from now. That the train was going to leave the station by two Fridays, because I have a lot of other countries doing things, and you know, if someone else is first, they’re first. President Trump does deals like a staircase,” Lutnick said.

“(The) first stair gets the best deal. You can’t get the best deal after the first guy,” he said.

Lutnick said Trump does things that way because that way it incents you to come to the table .

He recalled that after the UK deal, everyone asked Trump which country will be next and while the president talked about a variety of countries, he named India a couple of times publicly”.

“And we were talking (with) India, and we told India, you have three Fridays. Well, they have to get it done,” he said.

Lutnick said that while he would negotiate the contracts with the countries and set the whole deal up, “But let’s be clear, it’s his (Trump) deal. He is the closer. He does the deal. So I said You got to have Modi, it’s all set up, you have to have Modi call the President. They (India) were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call.”