Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the advertisement was not an insult to one person or community but to "the dignity of all Indians", and questioned why New Delhi had not issued what he called a strong public rebuttal.
The disputed Department of Homeland Security post used AI-generated imagery as part of a campaign against unlicensed commercial drivers. It depicted a brown-bearded man identified as "Mr Singh" alongside messages telling him to leave US roads and warning him to "self-deport or find out".
The post, published on the department's official X account, drew criticism from Sikh and Hindu advocacy organisations in the United States, which said the imagery and use of the widely shared surname Singh amounted to racial and religious profiling. The Sikh Coalition said Sikhs were still being targeted and profiled for their appearance 25 years after the September 11 attacks.
The Homeland Security Department later removed the post. It defended the broader campaign, however, and said the person depicted was intended to refer to Harjinder Singh, a truck driver accused in connection with a fatal road crash in Florida. Critics argued that the wording and imagery went beyond criticism of an individual and stereotyped a wider community.
Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly projected his personal rapport with US President Donald Trump, but the government had remained publicly restrained when Indians or people of India-origin faced what Congress described as humiliation under the Trump administration.
"Why has there been no strong public rebuttal from the Modi government on this insult to Indians?" Ramesh asked in a Hindi-language post on X. He described the government as "weak" and said it would have to explain why it was unable to advocate forcefully for the country's interests.
Ramesh also referred to the deportation of undocumented migrants from the United States aboard military aircraft, some of whom were restrained during their journey to India, and to trade tensions between New Delhi and Washington. Those issues, he argued, showed a pattern in which the government had failed to respond adequately to actions affecting India's dignity or interests.
The Congress leader's remarks were political criticism rather than an official assessment of bilateral diplomacy. The government had not, by Friday, issued a public statement specifically responding to the "Mr Singh" advertisement. There was also no indication of a formal diplomatic protest announced publicly over the post.
Congress Legislature Party leader in Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa separately attacked the government over the advertisement, contrasting the controversy with the standing of former prime minister Manmohan Singh in Washington. Bajwa said the depiction of a turbaned Sikh with hostile language was offensive to the community and to Indians more broadly.
The row also expanded beyond politics. Hasbro, owner of the Transformers franchise, objected to the use of its characters in the Homeland Security material and said it had not authorised the department's use of Optimus Prime. The imagery had presented the character with Homeland Security branding as part of the deportation-themed campaign.
US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi also condemned the post, saying government should not demonise people or imply that faith, heritage or identity meant they did not belong. He said more than 160,000 people in the United States shared the surname Singh and warned that targeting a name carried by many Sikh families could fuel xenophobia and cast suspicion on an entire community.