Gandhi accuses Modi

Rahul Gandhi used India’s new trade framework with the United States to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “selling” the country and yielding to Donald Trump. (indiatoday.in) The attack followed a February 6, 2026 U.S.-India joint statement announcing a framework for an interim trade agreement. India’s Commerce Ministry said the deal would cut or remove tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and on a wide range of U.S. food and farm products. (commerce.gov.in) The White House said India also intended to buy more than $500 billion of U.S. energy, information and communication technology, coal and other products. It said India committed to negotiate digital trade rules and address non-tariff barriers in priority sectors. (whitehouse.gov) Gandhi turned those terms into a domestic political argument about agriculture, energy and data. In Parliament on February 11, he called the pact a “wholesale surrender” and said farmers’ interests, energy security, textiles and data had been compromised. (business-standard.com) The dispute lands in a bigger shift in India-U.S. ties that both governments have been building since February 13, 2025, when Trump and Modi launched negotiations for a broader bilateral trade agreement. The interim deal was presented by both sides as a step toward that larger pact, not the final settlement. (commerce.gov.in) For Modi’s government, the agreement is part of a strategy to expand exports and lock in closer supply-chain and technology links with Washington. India’s government said the deal improves access for Indian exports in sectors including textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, machinery, pharmaceuticals and technology-driven industries. (static.pib.gov.in) For Gandhi and the Congress party, the same document became proof that India opened politically sensitive areas too far, especially farming and data. Gandhi repeated that line at rallies after Parliament, saying the government had opened agriculture to American farmers, weakened energy independence and compromised Indian data. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) Modi’s ministers rejected the charge in blunt terms. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said “no one has the audacity to sell or buy out India,” and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju called Gandhi’s claims lies and baseless allegations. (business-standard.com) The White House framed the same agreement as a market-opening win for American exporters and said the United States would lower its reciprocal tariff on India from 25% to 18%. It also linked the tariff move to India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian oil, adding a strategic layer to a deal already charged in Indian politics. (whitehouse.gov) So Gandhi’s accusation was not about a single line in a speech. It was a bid to define the interim U.S.-India deal as a question of sovereignty before the broader trade negotiations move ahead. (commerce.gov.in)