Barnala (Punjab), February 28 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-US interim trade deal, alleging that he had signed a "death warrant" for farmers and small and medium-sized industries by opening the doors for US goods, including agricultural produce.
"I am saying with responsibility that a storm is approaching. When US almonds, apples, pulses, cotton, and soybeans come to India, then the storm will hit," Gandhi said at a rally here.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said that the Prime Minister did not want to do this, and that he had acted under "pressure" due to the "threat of releasing the Epstein files" and a case against Gautam Adani's company in the US.
Addressing the rally in the politically significant Malwa region of the state, which accounts for 69 out of 117 Assembly seats, Gandhi also sent a firm message to the Congress unit in Punjab, warning its leaders that they would be sidelined if they could not work as a team.
Punjab Assembly elections are due next year.
"I also want to convey a message to the Congress party that work is achieved through teamwork. One person cannot win a match. We have the entire team here," Gandhi said.
"Whether it is (Congress chief) Mallikarjun Kharge and me, we want to convey this message: become a team player, or else we will make you a reserve player," he said.
"No matter how big a leader you may be, no one is bigger than the party. Become a team player, and if you do not, then Kharge and I will set you right," he said.
Gandhi further intensified his attack on the Modi government over the India-US trade deal, accusing Modi of "selling out" and "destroying" the country and asking what India had gained in return for agreeing to "buy US products worth Rs 9 lakh crore every year".
Gandhi said that if India buys goods worth Rs 9 lakh crore every year, "what will happen to our small and medium-scale sector? It will be finished."
"You have sold the country, you have destroyed the country. What did the US give to India? Tell me one thing... Did they give any guarantee? Did they say they will also buy? No," Gandhi said while addressing the 'Kisan Mahachaupal' rally here.
He alleged that the deal had been stalled for four months due to disagreements over opening up the agricultural sector.
"I asked experts why this deal was stuck. I got a reply that the US wants to open up the Indian agricultural sector, and our government does not want to," Gandhi said.
Nothing happened on this front for four months, he said.
He said that the Prime Minister called the US President Donald Trump without consulting the Cabinet, the Agriculture Minister, the Defence Minister, and the External Affairs Minister.
Modi told US President Donald Trump that he was ready for the deal, said Gandhi, and claimed that Modi had given Trump a guarantee that "India will buy US products worth Rs 9 lakh crore every year".
The deal will "destroy Indian farmers," he claimed.
Under this deal, India allowed the US to sell soybeans, corn, cotton, fruits, and almonds, he said. "Our farmers are not mechanised. They have small land holdings," he added, noting that in the US, land holdings are bigger and also mechanised.
"Narendra Modi has opened the doors of the agricultural sector. Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, farmers from all these states will be ruined," he alleged.
"US goods will come, and our farmers will be destroyed," he claimed.
"Narendra 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 agriculture sector. They said they are not doing it," he said.
"Never has any prime minister, be it of the Congress or the BJP, opened the agricultural sector," he said.
Then the question arises – "the work which Modi did not do for four months, why did he do it within 15 minutes?" Gandhi said.
"The question arises – what was the pressure that the Indian PM signed the death warrant of the country, farmers, and small and medium industries and gave our data," the Congress said.
The US released 35 lakh "Epstein files in which the names of Anil Ambani and Hardeep Singh Puri figured", he alleged. "These names were brought to threaten Modi. There are 35 lakh more files, and in those files, Modi's truth is locked. The US and Trump are threatening Modi if he does not sign, then these will be opened," alleged Gandhi.
He also targeted the Adani group. "In 10-15 years, the BJP has put its entire financial system in the Adani company. Adani is not a normal company. It is a special-purpose vehicle of the BJP. Whatever money is generated goes to Adani and then this money is used in politics," alleged Gandhi.
"And that is why Modi signed the deal," he claimed.
Gandhi again alleged 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 Congress leader 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.
Accusing the Centre of compromising on the country's energy security, Gandhi 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, the US and Saudi Arabia, India's entire energy security will be finished," Gandhi added.
Referring to the ongoing conflicts of Ukraine and Gaza, Gandhi indicated that the real battle is between China and the US.
Gandhi said if the US has to fight China, then they need Indian data. "Without Indian data, the US cannot fight China," he said. "China has the world's data. India is in second place in it. We have crores of people. Without data, there is no meaning of AI (artificial intelligence)," he said.
Data, which is the foundation of a nation in the 21st Century, is the country's asset, he said. "Under the US-India deal, it has been written in small lines that India's entire data has been handed over by the PM to the US," he claimed.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior party leaders 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 at the rally.
