Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026) questioned the government on whether it plans to push a de-dollarisation agenda at the 18th BRICS Summit to be held in New Delhi in September.
Key Statements
Hum samarthan nahin dete ki aisi koi BRICS currency jaisi nayi yojana layi jaye . Bharat ka uske upar virodh hai (India is not in favour of a BRICS currency. We do not support the introduction of any such BRICS currency scheme; India opposes it).”
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of BRICS Trade and Industry Ministers in Jaipur on August 7, 2026, had said: “Bharat BRICS currency ke paksh mein nahin hai .
Political Context
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned BRICS countries against creating an alternative currency or taking steps that could challenge the dollar’s dominance, threatening punitive tariffs and other measures.
Members of the committee questioned why the government was not pursuing greater “financial sovereignty” that could help countries bypass U.S. sanctions, sources said. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP John Brittas, sources said, specifically pointed to bilateral trade between Russia and China, which is increasingly being conducted in rubles and yuan, respectively, reducing the dependence on the U.S. dollar. India’s efforts to establish a similar local currency trade mechanism with Russia had not taken off, they said, and sought to know whether India, as the host nation, would push a “BRICS-led de-dollarisation agenda”. Some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs pushed back against suggestions that India should take positions that could be seen as confrontational towards the U.S., according to sources. No clear response was offered by officials of the Ministry of External Affairs, the sources said.
