Flags tariff surge, energy ‘weaponisation’ during Budget debate
New Delhi: The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have thrashed the government for its meek surrender before the United States over the trade deal with that country.
“No Prime Minister before Modi has done like that, nor will anyone after him do that”, he said about the Prime Minister’s role in the trade deal that compromised the country’s interests. No Prime Minister would sign such a deal unless there was a hold on him as he was under a “chokehold” or had a “grip on his neck” by the US, he observed. “You have sold our mother, ‘Bharat Mata’. Do you have no shame?”, he remarked in a scathing attack on the government.
Speaking during the debate on the Budget in the Lok Sabha today, Gandhi also noted that the Government of India had surrendered energy sovereignty as now the United States will decide from where we should purchase our oil and from where we should not. He said that the US has threatened to impose punitive tariffs if India purchases oil from countries disapproved by Washington. He argued that such conditions amount to “weaponisation” of finance and energy and undermine India’s sovereign decision-making. He alleged that the Centre has compromised India’s data sovereignty, energy security and agricultural interests in its recent engagement with the United States, at a time of intensifying global instability.
Contradicting the PM, Gandhi noted that the world was moving “from stability to instability”, citing conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia, including Gaza, and asserted that energy and finance are increasingly being weaponised in global geopolitics. He contended that despite acknowledging such turbulence, the Union Budget does not adequately address the “weaponisation of energy and finance” or safeguard India’s core strategic assets.
Describing India’s 1.4 billion population as the country’s “central strength”, Gandhi said in the digital age, data is the key strategic resource, especially in the context of artificial intelligence. “For artificial intelligence, data is petrol”, he remarked, adding, “if you have AI but don’t have data, you have nothing”. He observed that India and China possess the world’s largest pools of data, which are critical in the contest between the US and China.
Gandhi referred to the 20-year tax holiday to big tech companies. He listed five digital trade concessions granted to the US in the deal. These include no data localisation, free data flow to the US, limit on digital tax, no source code disclosure and loss of control over digital trade rules. He said this is not reform, this is complete surrender of India’s most valuable asset. He added that it is not just the surrender of a Prime Minister, but of the future of 1.5 billion Indians. He remarked that PM Modi has surrendered the future of Indians because he wanted to protect BJP’s financial architecture under scrutiny in the United States, referring to the case against Adani.
Gandhi said in the geopolitical contest, Indian data is the “single most valuable asset”, and negotiations with the US should have been conducted “as equals”. He said that had the INDIA bloc negotiated with the US President, it would have negotiated as equals and not like servants. “We would not have allowed India to be equated with Pakistan”, he said, adding, “we would have asserted treat us as equals, not as servants.”
Reiterating that the Indo-US trade deal was a complete surrender, Gandhi pointed out that the average tariffs on Indian goods have increased from around 3 per cent to 18 per cent, while US tariffs on certain imports have reduced to zero. He noted that US imports into India are to go up from $46 billion to $146 billion. Terming this situation as absolutely ‘absurd’, he said, “They have no commitment to us, but we have a commitment to them. We are going to add $100 billion a year to their imports, and they have no commitment to us. We’re just standing there like fools.”
Gandhi also linked the trade deal to what he described as external pressures arising from cases in the United States, including the Adani case and references to the Epstein files. He alleged that the Prime Minister had compromised national interest to protect his political position, saying that India’s future had been bartered to safeguard the BJP’s interests linked to cases under examination in the United States.
Raising concerns about the textile sector, he pointed out that Bangladesh has secured zero tariffs from the US, placing Indian exporters at a disadvantage.
On agriculture, Gandhi remarked that the government has opened Indian markets to “heavily mechanised American farms producing corn, soybean and cotton”, posing a threat to Indian farmers.
