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On June 23 (local time), Hyderabad in Telangana, India, held a commemorative ceremony naming a street near the U.S. Consulate as Donald Trump Street. / Captured from NDTV

When Hyderabad, the IT hub of southern India, named a major road adjacent to the U.S. Consulate "Donald Trump Street," Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party slammed the move as pure hypocrisy.

According to a report by Reuters on the 25th (local time), Shehzad Poonawalla, a spokesperson for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took to X (formerly Twitter) the previous day to target Rahul Gandhi, the top leader of the opposition Indian National Congress (INC). "Rahul Gandhi claims President Trump is harming India’s national interests," Poonawalla wrote, subsequently asking, "Then why is his Telangana state government paying the ultimate tribute by renaming a road after him?"

The road in question is located in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state, which is governed by the INC. It sits directly next to the U.S. Consulate and is close to the offices of major American IT giants including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. The road was officially named "Donald Trump Street" on the 23rd.

The INC maintains the stance that this measure reflects Hyderabad’s growing role in the cooperative relationship between the two nations. However, Trump has never visited Hyderabad during either of his two presidential terms, whereas former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both visited the city.

The ruling party’s decision to label the renaming as hypocrisy and attack the opposition is rooted in the sharply deteriorating bilateral relations following the launch of the second Trump administration. With the United States imposing high tariffs on Indian goods, applying pressure over India's procurement of Russian crude oil, and forging closer ties with India’s arch-rival Pakistan, criticism has been mounting within India against both President Trump and Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy toward Washington.

In particular, the opposition INC has consistently attacked Prime Minister Modi for being subservient to Trump, accusing him of failing to actively stand up to the U.S. president on issues ranging from tariffs to a U.S. strike on a tanker carrying Indian sailors during the Iran conflict. When the opposition party—which had criticized Modi for being too soft on Trump—ended up honoring Trump by naming a street after him, the ruling party seized the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive.

Following the unveiling of the renaming plan, the Communist Party of India also criticized the decision as absurd and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

                                                                                                            Jeong Ri-na