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‘PM compromised, can’t renegotiate': Rahul Gandhi doubles down on India-US trade deal amid fresh tariff row
Rahul Gandhi's sharp remarks come after Trump, while talking about the India-US trade deal, said that “nothing changes” and India will continue to pay tariffs.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi took a fresh jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he is “compromised” on Saturday over the trade deal between India and the US amid blow to Trump's tariff plans by the latter's Supreme Court.
In a post on X, Gandhi said that PM Modi “can't renegotiate” and that he will “surrender again”.
“The PM is compromised. His betrayal now stands exposed. He can’t renegotiate. He will surrender again,” Gandhi wrote in a brief post on X without detailing much.
This comes just a day after Gandhi explained his jiu-jitsu martial arts analogy used in Parliament while criticising the India-US trade deal.
On Friday, the Congress leader shared a video on his social media handles and said that PM is "trapped" in political "grips" and a "choke" that are not visible to the public.
However, Gandhi's continuous criticism of the trade deal has faced push back from the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with home minister Amit Shah accusing him of spreading “lies” and “misinformation” about India's trade negotiations. “The Opposition is misleading the country regarding the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the European Union and the UK, and the trade deal with America," Shah had said on Sunday, February 15.
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Trump says ‘nothing changes’ about India-US trade deal
Gandhi's sharp remarks come after United States President Donald Trump, while talking about the India-US trade deal, said that “nothing changes” and that India will continue to pay tariffs.
“Nothing changes, they’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs,” Trump said.
Also read: 'Modi was ripping us off': Trump after big praise on India deal amid tariff blow
“So, the deal with India is they pay tariffs. This is a reversal for what it used to be,” he added.
Trump also heaped praises on PM Modi, calling him a "great gentleman" before saying that he was “ripping” US off.
"As you know, India, and I think Prime Minister Modi is a great gentleman, a great man, actually, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States; he was ripping us off. So we made a deal with India. It's a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them, and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip," the US President says.
Also read: ‘India pulled from buying Russian oil at my request’: Trump reiterates claim amid tariff blow
Trump tariffs on India down from 18% to 10%
Hours after the US Supreme Court struck down the reciprocal tariffs imposed by Trump and called them unconstitutional, the US President on Saturday imposed a 10% “global tariff” on all US trading partners.
“It is my Great Honor to have just signed, from the Oval Office, a Global 10% Tariff on all Countries, which will be effective almost immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Following this, White House officials clarified that India's tariff rate has fallen from 18% to 10% under the new ‘global tariff’.
An official statement from Indian authorities on the fresh 10% tariffs and the US-India trade deal is awaited.
