Modi, however, has begun to push back. He said on Thursday the country was ready to stand by its farmers at any cost, without referring to the tussle with the U.S. on opening up the agricultural and dairy sectors to lower Trump's tariffs.

The Indian prime minister has said his country "is ready" to react to President Donald Trump's additional 25 percent levy on goods entering the U.S.

In a desperate bid to arrest the rapid erosion of US imperialism’s global economic and geopolitical power, Trump is threatening, bullying and attacking Washington’s ostensible allies, no less than those it has long identified as its strategic adversaries.