'I challenge PM Modi to scrap anti-farmer trade deal with US': Rahul Gandhi

Bhopal: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should scrap the Indo-US trade deal, which he described as being against the interests of Indian farmers.

Addressing the 'Kisan Mahachaupal' farmers' rally in Bhopal, Gandhi likened the interim trade deal to an arrow piercing the hearts of Indian farmers.

"After the US Supreme Court ruling on the trade deal, I challenge PM Modi to scrap it...but he won't be able to do so," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.

"The Indo-US trade deal is against the interests of our farmers and was done by PM Modi under the pressure of US President Donald Trump because of Epstein files and to save industrialist Adani," he alleged.

The Congress leader also accused PM Modi of agreeing to sign the Indo-US trade deal without taking Union ministers Rajnath Singh (Defence), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Agriculture) and Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways) into confidence.

"This is not a deal, but an arrow struck in the hearts of the country's farmers," Gandhi said.

He also alleged that through the trade deal, the PM has compromised the interests of India's agriculture, data, textile and import sectors.

Gandhi said he was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha after the President's address.

On former Army chief Gen M M Naravane's memoir, the Congress leader said the decision to go to war is political, and not a military one.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also present at the event, said the PM was coward, and added that the Indo-US trade deal shows the government's surrender.