PM compromised, buckled under pressure to sell out farmers’ blood & sweat: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday mounted a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the government hurried through a trade agreement with the United States under external pressure and, in doing so, “sold out” Indian farmers. The comments came after Gandhi was prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha when he insisted on referring to an article based on former Army Chief M M Naravane’s unpublished memoir.

Speaking to reporters in the Parliament complex, Gandhi said the blocking of his speech marked the first time in history that a Leader of the Opposition had been barred from responding to the President’s address. He accused the government of trying to silence him because of discomfort over multiple issues, including the trade deal, references to Naravane, and the so-called Epstein files.

“The issue is not Naravane’s statement, that is a side show. The main thing is that our prime minister has been compromised,” Gandhi said. He added that a trade deal that had remained stalled for four months was “sealed last evening” for reasons that, according to him, only he and Modi were aware of.

In a post on X, Gandhi wrote, “PM Modi is Compromised. PM is too afraid to let me speak in Parliament about Naravane, Epstein Files and how he has surrendered on Tariffs.” He later claimed that Modi was under “enormous pressure” and suggested that legal proceedings in the United States involving industrialist Gautam Adani, along with disclosures from the Epstein documents, constituted “pressure points” for the government.

Gandhi also told reporters that Indian farmers should see the agreement as a “sell-out” of their labour. “He has not just sold you off, but the whole country,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party rejected the charges. BJP MP Anurag Thakur asked whether the Congress and other opposition parties stood with India’s national interest and dismissed Gandhi’s claims about US pressure.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra questioned the terms of the pact, saying American agricultural products would now enter the Indian market. She asked whether the government intended to open the farm sector fully to the US and demanded immediate clarification.