New Delhi, Aug. 6 -- As trade talks between India and the US enter their final lap, testy grumbles from the White House-aimed ostensibly at influencing the final shape of an agreement-could end up creating schisms in the relationship between the world's two largest democracies.

US President Donald Trump's recent denunciation of India's trade framework, expressed mostly on social media in rapid bursts, is well within his usual range of bluster, but cannot be shrugged off.

Also read: Trump's trade shock: There's a world beyond those stars and stripes

One post threatened a hefty 25% levy on Indian exports and an unspecified penalty for buying oil and arms from Russia. Next, he called the economies of India and Russia "dead."

Not one to r...