Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi finalised the trade deal with US “under pressure” and “sold out” the farmers’ hard work through an agreement that allows US dairy, agri goods to be sold in the Indian markets.
Addressing the media in the Parliament House complex after he was not allowed to speak on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha for citing former Army chief MM Naravane’s unpublished “memoir”, Gandhi said he had authenticated the magazine article.
“We need to understand why a trade deal stuck for about four months was suddenly finalised last evening,” he said, adding that “there was huge pressure on Prime Minister Modi,” alluding to the case against industrialist Gautam Adani in the US and “a lot more to come in the Epstein files”.
Alleging that Prime Minister Modi “has been compromised” and that Indian farmers must understand their hard work “as well as their blood and sweat” has been “sold out” through the India-US trade deal, he went on to add that the entire country had been “sold out”.
Amid a heated exchange between the INDIA bloc MPs and the Treasury Bench MPs over Rahul Gandhi’s address, Chair Krishna Prasad Tenneti adjourned the House till 3 pm.
“I have authenticated the article. A very important matter in the President’s speech is national security and the relationship between us and the Chinese and Pakistanis. A very important matter in the article, which I have authenticated. This speaks about the Prime Minister…” Gandhi said to the House.
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“Our President’s address was about the path India has to take. Today. On the world stage, the main issue in international affairs is the conflict between China and the US. This is central to our President’s address. All I am saying is let me make a statement about what happened between China and India and how our PM reacted to it. Why am I being stopped?” he further questioned.
Chair Krishna Prasad Tenneti who was chairing the House asked the LoP to “restrict” himself to the speech of the President.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Kiren Rijiju, also opposed Gandhi’s address, saying he was “demoralising the armed forces” and that he shouldn’t quote the memoir since Speaker Om Birla had given a ruling against it on Monday.
Congress MP KC Venugopal then objected to Rijiju, alleging that he is “misleading the House”.
On Monday, Lok Sabha witnessed repeated interruptions, leading to adjournment for the day amid a prolonged stalemate over Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on speaking about a specific matter pertaining to the standoff with China during border tensions in 2020 while referring to a report citing an unpublished memoir of former Army Chief General MM Naravane.
BJP members strongly objected to his remarks, saying he was speaking against the rules of the House.
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