'Modi has surrendered and compromised': Congress slams BJP over India-USA trade deal

Congress on Saturday attacked the government over the trade deal claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surrendered India’s interest by making the country a dumping yard for the US and succumbing to the pressure on Russian oil import and willingly putting the country on American watch.

While General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said "huglomacy and photo-ops" have not amounted to much, Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera said a "scared" Modi has "surrendered and compromised" the country's interest, as the US forced India to agree to the deal "at gun point and through blackmail".

"The US will now monitor whether India is importing oil from Russia. If the US decides India has imported Russian oil directly or indirectly, the extra 25 per cent tariff penalty is back. This is truly extraordinary. And we have accepted it. 'Naam (name) Narender, Kaam (job) Surrender'," Ramesh posted on 'X'.

Ramesh said India at present enjoys a trade surplus of about USD 45 billion with America but the deal now says the country would buy for USD 500 billion more over the next five years, which means imports from America will at least triple. Khera said there is no corresponding commitment from the US to buy from India.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said his "preliminary view" is that the framework deal is "heavily tilted in favour of the US and the asymmetry is obvious".

He asked “how the 'framework for an Interim Agreement' is a matter of celebration” when India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of food and agricultural products but the US will impose a tariff of 18 per cent on goods originating from India.

These goods will include textiles, leather goods, organic chemicals etc. and the US will remove the tariff only upon a 'successful conclusion of the Interim Agreement', he said adding that the US tariffs on steel, copper and aluminium will apparently continue except on certain aircraft and aircraft parts.

Claiming that the deal was a "betrayal of what India stood for the past 75 years", Khera told reporters, "(Commerce Minister) Piyush Goyal read out a list of what all things we will not buy. He conveniently hid the list of what all will come in, which will be dumped in India."

"India has been made into a dumping ground by this deal. I do not want to call it a deal, as a deal is amongst equals and you sit across the table and negotiate. A deal cannot be with a gun held on your head. It is blackmail, it is a surrender," he said.

Khera alleged that Modi compromised interests of farmers, middle classes and Small and Medium Enterprises, as key decisions were being taken to suit Washington rather than India. Criticising Modi's call to celebrate the deal, he claimed people will have to pay heavy tariffs, as it has actually risen from 3 per cent to 18 per cent.

Warning that slashing of import tariffs on US agricultural and food products would "break the backbone" of Indian farmers, he claimed that their American counterparts stand to gain access to a vast market.