Barnala (Punjab), February 28 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-US interim trade deal, claiming that it would destroy Indian farmers.
Addressing the Kisan Mahachaupal rally here, Gandhi alleged that the deal had been stalled for four months due to disagreements over the opening of the agricultural sector.
"The question arises: if the Prime Minister didn't do this for four months, why did he do it in just 15 minutes?" he said, asking why the trade deal was suddenly finalized.
Gandhi said that Modi had given a guarantee to US President Donald Trump that India would buy US products worth Rs 9 lakh crore every year.
He said that the deal would "destroy Indian farmers".
During his address, Gandhi claimed that he was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha recently after the President's address because he wanted to comment on former Army Chief Manoj Naravane's memoirs.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said he intended to refer to an unpublished book by Gen Naravane (retd), which, he claimed, described a lack of response from the political leadership during Chinese troop movements near the border.
"I asked experts why this deal was stuck. I got a reply that the US wants to open the Indian agricultural sector, and our government does not want to open it," said Gandhi.
Nothing happened on this front for four months, he said.
He said the prime minister called up the US president without consulting the Cabinet, the Minister of Agriculture, and the Ministers of Defence and External Affairs.
Modi told US President Donald Trump that he was ready for the deal, said Gandhi.
Under this deal, India allowed the US to sell soybeans, corn, cotton, fruits, and almonds, he said.
"Our farmers are not mechanized. They have small land holdings," he said, adding that in the US, the landholdings are larger and also mechanized.
"Narendra Modi ji has opened the door of the agricultural sector. Farmers of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha will be ruined," he alleged.
US goods will come, and our farmers will be destroyed, he said.
"Modi did not want to do this. I know it. Because for four months, he was trying to stop it. We have connections in the government, we know the bureaucrats, and we asked them whether they will open the agricultural sector. They said they are not doing it," he said.
"Never has any prime minister, be it from the Congress or the BJP, been able to open the agricultural sector," he said.
Then the question arises: if Modi didn't do this for four months, why did he do it in just 15 minutes?" he asked.
Gandhi said that if India buys goods worth Rs 9 lakh crore every year, then what will happen to our small and medium-scale sector? It will be finished, he claimed.
He further claimed that PM Modi told the US that India will buy oil from a country that it wants.
"Neither will we buy oil from Russia, nor from Iran. If you (US) tell us to buy oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, India's entire energy security will be finished," Gandhi added.
Senior Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in Punjab, Partap Singh Bajwa, former chief ministers Charanjit Singh Channi and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa and another senior leader from the state Vijay Inder Singla, were present.
