Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the India-US trade deal, accusing him of spreading "stage-managed", "artificial" and "baseless" narratives.
Goyal said that Gandhi's allegations were an attempt to mislead farmers.
Terming Rahul Gandhi's claims as ‘fake’ and ‘fabricated’, Goyal took to his official X (formerly Twitter) handle to affirm that the allegations were aimed at misguiding the nation's innocent and hard-working ‘annadatas’, whose interests have been fully protected by the Modi government in the India-US trade deal.
“Friends, Rahul Gandhi has once again rolled out a stage-managed, most artificial and fake narrative. This time, he's shooting from the shoulders of a few Congress Party activists who are pretending to be farmer leaders in a completely artificial and baseless conversation. You can see them taking the microphone around, recording their interaction, probably based on a predetermined script, because every claim they have made is false,” Goyal said.
{{/usCountry}}“Friends, Rahul Gandhi has once again rolled out a stage-managed, most artificial and fake narrative. This time, he's shooting from the shoulders of a few Congress Party activists who are pretending to be farmer leaders in a completely artificial and baseless conversation. You can see them taking the microphone around, recording their interaction, probably based on a predetermined script, because every claim they have made is false,” Goyal said.
{{/usCountry}}“Rahul Gandhi stands completely exposed as a dramatist and a relentless peddler of fake, baseless allegations and fabricated stories,” Goyal said adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been a well-wisher of the country's farmers.
“He has introduced so many schemes to support our farmers and make India atmanirbhar. He will always protect the farmers and the nation's progress,” he added.
Adding that interests of all farmers have been fully protected under the trade agreement, Goyal noted that the deal would also benefit a lot of fishermen, youth, MSMEs and startups.
Rahul Gandhi's claims
The retaliation followed earlier allegations by Rahul Gandhi where he slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘betraying India’s farmers' and said that the India-US trade deal posed a direct threat to their livelihoods.
“Narendra “surrender” Modi has betrayed India’s farmers—and the farmers have realized this. This isn’t just a trade deal; it’s a direct assault on the livelihoods of our food providers,” Gandhi on Friday wrote on X adding that the concerns were evident during a meeting with a delegation of farmers' union in the Parliament.
“Farmers struggling with inflation, rising costs, and uncertainty over MSP are now being left unprepared to face foreign crops backed by massive subsidies and mechanical might,” he wrote.