Indo-US deal against country’s honour, sovereignty: Congress

Bhopal: The Congress said on Sunday that the Indo-US interim trade deal is against India’s honour and sovereignty, alleging that the government executed it under pressure from America.

Addressing a press conference here, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the government showed what she termed “unusual and suspicious haste” in finalising the agreement. Later, speaking to PTI Videos, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh called the interim agreement “anti-farmer”.

“This trade agreement is against national interest, farmers, youth, energy security and data sovereignty, and is a compromised deal imposed on the country by the prime minister,” Shrinate claimed.

The Congress has said India would have been in a much stronger position had the government waited for the US Supreme Court’s verdict, striking down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and not acted in haste.

A uniform global tariff would have applied to India, but under the India-US agreement announced in early February, an 18 per cent tariff on Indian products was accepted, she said.

“That is, even when tariffs rose from three per cent to 18 per cent, the government was celebrating it as an achievement. This is not a celebration but an attempt to mislead the country,” she said.

Shrinate claimed that under the agreement, India promised near-zero tariffs on US products, agreed to import goods worth nearly $500 billion from the US over five years, and accepted conditions such as stopping the purchase of cheaper crude oil from Russia.

She questioned why Indian farmers are being “pushed towards ruin” by opening domestic markets to US agricultural products. The agreement amounts to a direct attack on India’s energy security and data security, she said.

“By promising not to buy cheap crude oil from Russia, a conspiracy has been hatched to make India dependent on expensive imports, which will increase the burden of inflation on the common people. At the same time, conditions related to handing over sensitive data to the US pose a serious threat to India’s digital sovereignty,” she claimed.

Digvijaya Singh accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not speaking on the “anti-farmer” Indo-US deal.

Asked about PM Modi’s criticism of the ‘shirtless’ protest by Indian Youth Congress workers at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, Singh alleged that Congress offices were attacked on Saturday by the BJP’s youth wing members.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi alleged that the Congress turned an international event hosted by the country into an arena for its “gandi aur nangi (dirty and shameless)” politics.

Singh said, “They (BJP’s youth wing workers) pelted stones. However, cases are being registered against Congress workers. Is this justice? Everybody has the right to protest, but violence and stone pelting are unacceptable. I oppose it.” The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha has held protests outside Congress offices in many parts of the MP, where clashes were reported between them and their rival party’s cadres.