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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being "controlled" by US President Donald Trump for signing the trade deal.
Addressing the gathering at the concluding session of the Puthuyuga Yatra in Kerala here, Gandhi called the deal a betrayal of the country by the PM, adding that its consequences will be borne by the people of the country. The Leader of Opposition (LoP) Lok Sabha accused PM Modi of letting the country down by opening the agriculture sector to the US, signing away our energy security, letting the US extract our data, and buying a million dollars' worth of imports from the US. "I must say that the PM has let the country down. He has betrayed the country. I do not use the word lightly but precisely because I believe that the PM has betrayed the country when he signed the US deal. And the result of it is going to be borne by the people of our country. By our farmers, by our small and medium business owners and by our workers. No PM before him has opened agriculture to American agriculture," Gandhi said, adding that owing to this deal, large Americanised firms are going to compete with small labour-intensive firms. "The result is going to be devastating in the agriculture sector and for our cotton, dal, soybean and fruit farmers," he said. Further commenting on the US' 30-day waiver allowing India to purchase Russian oil amid the escalating West Asia tensions, Rahul Gandhi asked why India needs US permission over its oil imports. "The second thing our PM has signed away is our energy security. Imagine that the PM of India has committed to President Trump that India will only buy oil from whom America wants it to buy oil. Imagine that a country as powerful as ours has to take permission from the US if it wants to buy oil from Russia," he said. Gandhi further said that the PM has allegedly allowed the US to extract data from the country, adding that India has agreed to US imports worth millions of dollars as a result of this deal. "The third thing that Trump has extracted from PM Modi is data. The most valuable asset that India has is the data that we produce. Any talk on AI has to be based on data. And our 1,4 billion people produce the largest amount of data on the planet. This includes medical data, data on the movement of people, and communication data," Rahul Gandhi said. "The final thing he has done is that he promised Trump that we will buy millions of dollars of imports from the US. 9 lakh crore imports from America every year," he added. Stating that "no Indian PM would do this under natural circumstances", Rahul Gandhi claimed that the reason for the PM's surrender to the US is that he is compromised. The LoP said that "Anil Ambani, a close confidante of the PM, is mentioned" in the infamous files. "I am confident that Modi would not sell the Indian farmer and Indian data under normal circumstances. The only reason the PM has done this deal is that the PM of India is compromised. There are 3 and a half million Epstein files that have not been released, and the PM is terrified that the US will release them. Anil Ambani, a close confidante of the PM, is mentioned in those files. Hardeep Puri's name is mentioned in those files, and we are certain that there are many other names in these files. On the other hand, the US has a criminal case against Mr Adani. And PM is terrified that the finances of the BJP and his finances will be revealed to the people of India. And that is why the PM panicked and signed the US-India deal. Trump is openly threatening that the PM of India that he can ruin the career, Mr Modi. So Mr Modi is controlled by Trump," he said. (ANI)
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