Washington, June 25 -- The stalled India-US trade deal has hit a wall that has little to do with spreadsheets or supply chains. It is, at its core, about raw electoral politics.

That is the blunt assessment of Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), speaking to ANI ahead of the USISPF Leadership Summit 2026 in Washington on Monday.

"The issue is not technical," Aghi said. "India's position has been: we want preferential tariffs, meaning give us lower tariffs than our neighbours, because that makes us more competitive. It's not about 10% or 20%; it's about being lower than our neighbours."

The neighbour in question is Pakistan. "The tariff on India at the moment is 12.5%, while Pakistan's is ...