“Leading to job losses and slower economic growth...” for which country?
Does buying discounted Russian oil benefit India so crazy much that they can take hits for doing so in other areas of their economy?
Not really but India feels like it has been pushed to a corner and comments from Trump & some of his officials are seen as insulting.
India was the most pro-US, pro-Trump country in the world. Modi was among the first to meet Trump and start negotiations on a trade deal. By most accounts, they had reached a deal with Lutnick & Bessent who then presented it to Trump for final approval. Trump pushed for more access in agriculture and dairy, probably buoyed by deals with Indonesia, Europe & Japan. Agriculture & dairy are politically an impossible ask for the Indian government. Trump them announced 25% tariff on India and used harsh language while threatening additional tariff for purchasing Russian Oil, a topic that nobody from the Trump administration had raised with India before that. Nobody in India believes that this is about Russian oil, more that it is a pressure tactic to get India to buckle on trade. The ask from Trump on agriculture and Dairy cant be met by any Indian government and hence the stalemate.
Another important point is that unlike Japan or the EU, India is not an export led economy, rather an internal consumption led economy. International trade is only a small part of the economy and overall trade with US is less than 2% of India's GDP. The effect on India's economy if tariffs remain in place is estimated to be between 0.4 and 0.7 percent of GDP growth. Still a large figure and a loss that India would want to avoid but not debilitating. Certain sectors would feel pain, some more than others but overall economy is unlikely to hurt.
Russia has always had a close relation with India from the erstwhile USSR days. The US picked Pakistan as its ally and Russia/USSR became a major military supplier to India. Even today, some 55% of Indian equipment is of Russian/Soviet origin. This has reduced over the last 25 years with the US, France and Israel becoming substantial suppliers. For 25 years, from the last years of the Clinton administration, US and India have worked on a closer relationship. President Bush is widely credited as having played the most consequential part with a nuclear deal but all administrations, including the first Trump administration had deepened the relationship.
India & the US are in a couple of important groupings - QUAD (India,US,Australia & Japan) and I2U2(India, Israel, US and the UAE) and military cooperation between the two countries was at an all time high. The US does more military exercises with India than with any other country and US ships and aircraft routinely stop at Indian ports and airbases, especially near the Malacca straits.
During the recent operations against the Houthis, the US mustered up allies for a naval task force. A couple of the allies sent a ship each, others like Australia and Canada just sent a couple of personnel. India didn't join the task force but deployed over a dozen ships in the region, closely coordinating with the US.
Trump's actions and the imposition of tariffs have fundamentally damaged the relationship and the damage cannot be repaired over the near term. India, as a result of the US actions, is more likely to draw closer to Russia and trust between the US and India is at historically low levels. There are long term consequences to this relationship beyond just the present.