The BJP on Wednesday launched a sharp counter-attack on the Congress, rolling out what its leaders termed the “Nehru-Gandhi family’s compromise story” to rebut the Opposition’s “PM compromised” campaign over the India-US trade deal.

Newly elected BJP president Nitin Nabin spearheaded the offensive from Patna, while commerce minister Piyush Goyal addressed the media in Delhi, accusing the Nehru-Gandhi family of repeatedly sacrificing national interest to protect personal and political stakes. The party also ran a campaign on X.

Reading from a prepared statement in Patna, Nabin alleged that from India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the present Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, the family represented a “compromised legacy”.

“The very 450 million people who entrusted leadership to Nehruji, he called them a liability. Today, Rahul Gandhi’s steps and statements repeatedly align with narratives of foreign powers. This reflects the thinking of the Congress’s political legacy, which has always compromised with the nation by prioritising personal interests,” Nabin said.

He alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru’s secretariat had been vulnerable to foreign influence and accused him of compromising India’s sovereignty in his handling of Tibet and China. Nabin claimed that Nehru’s acceptance of China’s sovereignty over Tibet in 1954, his position on Aksai Chin and his support for China’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council amounted
to “surrender”.

The BJP’s attack followed a “shirtless” protest by Youth Congress workers at the AI summit in Delhi last week and Rahul’s repeated criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-US trade agreement. Addressing a farmers’ rally in Bhopal on Tuesday, Rahul accused Modi of finalising the trade deal under pressure and challenged him to withdraw what he termed an “unfair” pact.