The Congress, at its first public meeting against the India-US trade deal, focused on its claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was blackmailed into issuing the joint statement with Washington because of the Epstein files and the criminal investigation related to the Adani group in America.
Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said at the Kisan Mahachaupal in Bhopal on Tuesday: “For four months, nothing moved (on the trade deal due to India wanting to protect agriculture). Then suddenly, Narendra Modi called and sold off India’s farmers. Sold off the garment industry. Gave all our data to America. Why? The first reason: Millions of Epstein files are locked in America, 30 lakh files. It contains emails, messages, videos, everything. It has not been released.
“Hardeep Puri’s name has been released as a threat. The message is, ‘Brother, if you don’t listen to us, then the contents of these files will be revealed…. Modiji, tell the country what is your relationship with Anil Ambani. Anil Ambani is in the Epstein files.
“The second threat is that Adaniji has a criminal case against him in America…. The target of the American case is not Adani. The target of that arrow is Narendra Modi.”
He added: “The US Supreme Court said it would cancel the tariffs Trump has imposed worldwide. And they did. Upon hearing this, other countries said, ‘Look, the Supreme Court has cancelled it, so we’re cancelling the deal too.’ But Narendra Modi didn’t utter a word…. He can’t do it because of the threat of Epstein, and Adani’s criminal case hanging over their heads.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took a dig at Union agriculture minister and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
“A leader here was formerly the chief minister. He always said, ‘I am a farmer….’ But I ask, now after going to Delhi why don’t you speak out about the mistakes Modi is making? Sir, this is against the farmers, this is against the labourers. This is against our country. Why aren’t you speaking out about this, Mr Chouhan?
“If you want to protect the interests of the workers and the farmers, you should fight Modi. They’ve driven you out of here and taken you there. You don’t do anything,” Kharge said.
Referring to the renaming of the MGNREGA, Kharge said: “His (Modi) only job is to change names.... They’re filled with such madness, and their foreign policy is useless. They don’t do the things they should, but they’ve abandoned the good they should do.”