Rahul Gandhi
NEW DELHI: Minutes after accusing the Centre of having “sold out Bharat Mata” from the floor of the House, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, went on to interrupt the ministers outside. The interuption happened when ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Joshi stood outside the House, speaking to the reporters. Vaishnaw was speaking about the safety of data of the Indians and how Rahul Gandhi should authenticate the statements before making big charges against the Centre in the House.As the IT minister spoke, Rahul Gandhi walked up to him from behind and started speaking.”Come, let’s stand together. Let’s do it together,” the Congress leader said as the ministers walked away. Earlier the day, Rahul alleged that the India–US interim trade deal amounted to a “wholesale surrender” and accused the Centre of having “sold Bharat Mata”, compromising the country’s energy security and farmers’ interests.Speaking in the debate on the Union Budget, Rahul said he did not believe that any Indian prime minister, including Narendra Modi, would agree to such a deal unless there was a “chokehold” on him. “Why has he (Modi) sold India – because they (the US) are choking him. They have a grip on his neck,” Gandhi said, beginning his speech with a martial arts analogy in which a grip is followed by a chokehold until the opponent taps out.He referred to earlier remarks by PM Modi and NSA Ajit Doval that the era of war is over. “In fact, we are moving into the era of war. War is there in Ukraine, war was there in Gaza, war is there in the Middle East, threat of war is there in Iran, we had Operation Sindoor.””We are moving into a dangerous world. We have to understand our strengths, and the central strength of our country is our people,” he said, stressing the need to safeguard the country’s people, data, food supply and energy systems.Rahul said that had an INDIA bloc government negotiated the agreement, it would have insisted on parity with the United States.”The first thing we would say (to Trump) is that the most important asset in this equation is Indian data. If the US wants to protect the dollar, it must recognise that Indian data is the biggest asset. Second thing, we would say to President Trump is that ‘if you want access to it, then you will talk to us as an equal, not talk to us as if we are your servants’,” he said.He added that an INDIA bloc government would have declared energy security non-negotiable. “The third thing, we would have told President Trump is that ‘we understand you have agricultural voter base, you need to protect farmers, but we will also protect our farmers’,” he said.”An INDIA bloc government would say that data is our biggest strength, and now let us talk. We would go there (for negotiating) as an equal. We will not be made equal to Pakistan. If President Trump decided that Pakistan Army chief will have breakfast with him, we will have something to say about it,” he added.Tje Congress claimed that under the interim deal, India’s energy security had effectively been ceded to the US.”They will decide who we buy oil from, our PM will not decide. They will monitor, and if India buys oil (from where they don’t want us to), they will punish us and take tariffs to 50 per cent,” he said.Accusing the government of enabling “energy and financial weaponisation”, Gandhi said it had allowed Americans to weaponise “our finance and our energy against us”.”How can you come to this House and defend this? Are you not ashamed of what you are giving away?” he asked.”I am saying you have sold India. Are you not ashamed of selling India? You have sold our mother – Bharat Mata. Do you have no shame?” he said.Treasury bench MPs repeatedly objected, calling the allegations “baseless” and asking Gandhi to authenticate his claims. Gandhi said he was willing to comply. Go to Source
