Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that the India-US trade deal had surrendered the future of Indians to Washington.
“Our energy security has been handed over to the US under the trade deal. This is wholesale surrender,” Rahul said during his speech on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha. “You have opened the door to mechanised American farms, you have opened the door to crush our poor farmers. It is disgraceful.”
Rahul said no Indian prime minister, not even Narendra Modi, would have agreed to sign the deal, "unless he was under a chokehold."
“Modi surrendered the future of 1.5 billion Indians because he wanted to protect the BJP’s financial architecture,” Rahul alleged.
The Congress leader tried to link the trade deal to disclosures in the Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, drawing protests from the Treasury benches.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not in the Lok Sabha when Rahul spoke.
A revised fact sheet released by the White House on Monday called ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)’, removed a reference to pulses.
The trade deal, the full details of which are yet to emerge, was agreed upon after India agreed to partially open its sensitive agriculture sector.
“You have sold India. Are you not ashamed of selling India? You have sold our mother, Bharat Mata,” Rahul said.
In her Budget speech, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman offered a tax holiday till 2047 to foreign companies using Indian data centres to provide cloud services to customers across the globe. To avail the tax holiday, companies need to provide services to Indian customers through an Indian reseller entity.
Rahul picked up the data point.
“If we [INDIA bloc] were negotiating with President Trump, we would say that Indian data is the most important asset and key to protecting the dollar. If the US wants access to this data, it must engage with India as an equal, not as a subordinate. We would also make clear that India will protect its energy security and safeguard its own farmers.”
He added: “The Budget recognises that we are going into a dangerous time. Intensifying geopolitical conflicts. The Budget recognises energy and finance are being weaponised all across the world. Dollar is being weaponised, the dollar is weakening in value, gold and silver prices are going up. There is absolutely nothing in the Budget that looks into these issues.”
Rahul said for India, its data were the biggest strength that the country possessed and could be used on any negotiation table.
“If India goes to the table, its key strength is its people – their wisdom, choices, imagination and behaviour. In the 21st century, population has become a major asset whereas earlier it was often seen as a burden,” he said.
The Narendra Modi government has claimed the deal was signed with insulation for farmers.
Commerce minister Piyush Goyal has defended the selective opening up of the economy, describing the measure as a “calibrated” one that took into account the interests of Indian MSMEs, farmers, consumers and industry.
“We have not given any concession on wheat, rice, dairy, poultry, meat, maize, millet, sugar, soybean,” Goyal has said.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday claimed that 20 to 25 Congress MPs had abused Lok Sabha Speaker in his chamber and they were not stopped by senior leaders K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who were present there.
The parliamentary affairs minister said that Birla was very hurt. The Lok Sabha speaker is a very lenient, else he could have taken strong action, he said.
"Some members went to his chamber and abused (Birla). When 20-25 Congress MPs went to the speaker's chamber, I also went there. I just can't utter the kind of abuses they have hurled at the speaker," Rijiju told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
He claimed that Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior Congress leaders were present in the chamber when the incident happened.
