You’ve Sold Bharat Mata’: Rahul Gandhi Slams Centre Over India-US Trade Deal, Alleges Tariffs Cut to Zero

In a fiery and explosive address in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi launched one of his sharpest attacks yet on the Centre over the recently announced India-US interim trade agreement, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “selling the country” and signing what he called a “one-sided deal” that betrays India’s farmers.

Allowed to speak after a week, Gandhi alleged that the agreement would open Indian markets to a flood of American agricultural imports, crushing small farmers and exposing them to unprecedented competition. “You have sold India.

 Are you not ashamed? You have sold our mother, Bharat Mata,” he thundered, claiming that no Prime Minister in history had ever placed farmers in such peril. Citing tariff changes, Gandhi argued that while India’s average tariff on US goods has reportedly been slashed from 16 per cent to zero, tariffs on Indian exports have surged from 3 per cent to 18 per cent, calling the arrangement “absurd” and heavily tilted in Washington’s favour.

He further claimed that US imports into India could jump from $46 billion to $146 billion, alleging that India is making sweeping concessions without securing firm commitments in return. Escalating his attack, Gandhi suggested the Prime Minister acted under “external pressure,” alleging visible fear and controversially invoking the “Epstein files,” questioning why certain industrialists were not under scrutiny and hinting at undisclosed links.

 The charged speech triggered uproar in Parliament, turning the trade pact into a full-blown political flashpoint and setting the stage for an intensifying showdown between the government and the opposition over sovereignty, farmers’ welfare and the true cost of the India-US deal.