Grips and chokes on PM answer India-US trade deal surrender: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday intensified his attack on the BJP-led government over the interim India-US trade deal, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making an “abject surrender” under hidden pressures.

Rahul Gandhi claimed that the deal, which significantly increases US imports to India without clear reciprocal benefits, compromises India’s energy security, endangers farmers’ livelihoods, and risks turning the country into a “data colony.”

Speaking in a video posted on X, Rahul Gandhi revisited his recent speech in Parliament, where he used a Jiu-Jitsu analogy to describe the political pressures on the Prime Minister. “The answer to this abject surrender lies in the ‘grips’ and ‘chokes’ placed on the PM,” Rahul Gandhi said, explaining that just as in the sport, these grips and chokes exist in politics, often hidden from public view, controlling the actions of leaders in subtle ways.

Rahul Gandhi elaborated that the “grips” on Modi come from multiple quarters. On one side, he cited unresolved legal controversies involving businessmen such as Gautam Adani in the US and the Epstein scandal, claiming the Prime Minister’s name appears in unreleased files linked to Union minister Hardeep Puri and Anil Ambani. On the other side, Rahul Gandhi referenced border tensions with China and alluded to unreleased materials from former army chief M.M. Naravane.

“On one side there is China sitting on our border, on the other side is the US. Our PM is trapped between these grips,” Rahul Gandhi said. He added that the “fake image” of Modi cultivated over years, which involved huge amounts of money, now serves as another leverage point controlled by the US, affecting decisions on trade, agriculture, textiles, and data sovereignty.

Rahul Gandhi warned that the trade deal will force India to import heavily from the US, jeopardize the textile sector, and allow American companies access to Indian data at minimal cost. “We are going to become a data colony. Why did a country of the size of India hand away everything, including our data, textile industry and agriculture sector, for what and why? The answer is in the grips and chokes applied on the PM,” he said.

The Congress party has repeatedly alleged that Modi “surrendered” to the US in agreeing to the deal, arguing that it undermines India’s sovereignty, sacrifices national interest under the guise of trade, and threatens the economic self-reliance of the country. Gandhi asserted that trade agreements should never become a path to subjugation, emphasizing that farmers, industries, and India’s digital and energy independence are at stake.

In the X post, Rahul Gandhi explained his Jiu-Jitsu analogy in detail, noting that political grips and chokes are often invisible to the public, requiring careful analysis to understand where external pressures are being applied on leaders. He stressed that these hidden pressures explain why the prime minister agreed to the deal despite apparent costs to national interest.

The Opposition leader’s comments mark the latest salvo in a broader political debate on the India-US trade agreement, which has already sparked criticism from farmer groups, industry representatives, and opposition parties over its potential economic and strategic implications.

With PTI inputs