Although Parliament is still 10 days from reconvening after its recess, groundwork for disruption and fiery exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches during the remainder of the Budget session is already being laid.
With the Supreme Court of the United States of America striking down US President Donald Trump’s tariffs in a historic 6-3 majority decision last Saturday, the Opposition’s INDIA bloc has sensed an opportunity to keep up pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over the Indo-US interim trade deal.
Also read: India-US trade deal faces uncertainty as experts push for fresh renegotiation
Stridently critical of the interim agreement signed between India and the US on February 2, the Opposition plans to rally together to demand from the Modi government a “renegotiation of the deal to protect India’s economic interests and the interests of our farmers, textile industries and medium and small businesses”.
BJP to exploit chinks in Opposition camp
Sources in the Opposition told The Federal that senior INDIA bloc leaders would soon discuss unitedly pressing for a discussion in Parliament on “all aspects related to the interim trade agreement, including why our negotiators did not wait for the US Supreme Court’s tariff verdict, which everyone knew was expected very soon and was widely expected to go against Trump’s tariff policy.”
The ruling BJP, meanwhile, is hoping to exploit chinks within the Opposition camp to brazen out the political storm that the US top court’s decision and the interim trade deal have both, individually and collectively, triggered in India. Ironically, an opportunity for the BJP to do so has been handed out by the Opposition bloc’s largest constituent, the Congress party, itself. Last week’s ‘shirtless protest’ by members of the Congress’ youth wing, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), at the AI Impact Summit against the Indo-US interim trade deal had been slammed by several constituents of the INDIA bloc as one that was in poor taste.
Modi’s attack on Congress
On Sunday (February 22), at a public event in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, Modi latched on to the controversy over the IYC protest to isolate the Congress from its allies. Marshalling his unfailingly sly political rhetoric, the Prime Minister, hit out at the Congress leadership for turning a global expo into a stage for “gandi aur nangi rajneeti (dirty and naked politics)”, while craftily commending other INDIA bloc parties like the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the DMK and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for not backing the IYC protest.
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Sources in the Opposition, however, told The Federal that though a bulk of the INDIA bloc parties, and even a sizeable section of senior Congress leaders, believed that the IYC protest was “ill-conceived”, the issue that the protesters raised was “genuine”. As such, the Opposition insists that Modi’s attempts to divide the Opposition on the trade deal by painting the IYC protest as an “anti-national activity hatched by the Congress” would not succeed.
“It (IYC protest) should have been avoided. The AI Summit had people from across the world; there were global leaders in politics, business, and technology… the Congress should have known how the BJP would weaponise such a protest. It was another self-goal by the Congress and it has given the BJP a chance to divert attention from the horrible mismanagement of the summit and, more importantly, from the much larger political issue of a completely one-sided trade deal that helps US while exploiting Indian interests,” said a senior CPM Rajya Sabha MP.
Congress’ nationwide campaign
The CPM leader, however, added that “if Modi thinks that by slamming the Congress and sparing the other Opposition parties over the IYC protest he will divide us (the INDIA bloc) on the trade deal issue, he is mistaken… when Parliament meets, the Opposition will unitedly raise the issue… our leaders will certainly discuss the strategy before Parliament reconvenes because the session will have a very busy agenda, including the motion our colleagues in the Lok Sabha had submitted before recess seeking the Speaker’s removal, which we have been told is scheduled for discussion on the first day (March 9).”
Also read: US Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s global tariffs
Calling the IYC protest “ill-conceived and ill-advised”, a Lok Sabha MP from the Samajwadi Party said, “our leader (Akhilesh Yadav) has already said it should not have been done that way”. The MP, however, added “whatever IYC may have done does not take away from the fact that the deal Trump and Modi are forcing on India is anti-India and we will make sure that the government answers our questions on why our side rushed in to sign the deal when a court order was awaited; what was the pressure on Modi to accept such bad terms for our economy and businesses.”
The Congress, which has already announced a nationwide campaign against the framework agreement, is set to kick off its agitation on Tuesday (February 24) with a kisan chaupal in Bhopal where Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi plan to tear into the Modi government for forcing Indian farmers to accept an “anti-farmer deal” just as it had attempted to force the three farm laws on them back in 2020. The event in Bhopal will be followed up by similar kisan chaupals in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal and Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar early next month.
Congress wants trade deal to be put ‘on hold’
In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s judgment, the Congress has also demanded that the Modi government must immediately put the interim trade deal “on hold” and renegotiate for better terms with the Trump administration. On Saturday, the Congress’ communications chief Jairam Ramesh had told reporters that the framework agreement signed on February 2 already had a provision which said that if one country modified the terms, the other could do so too and asserted that the US would have to align its tariff policy with its top court’s ruling, which would also have a bearing on the trade deal.
Also read: PM should put India-US trade agreement on hold, renegotiate terms of deal: Congress
Alleging that Modi “hastily” agreed to the interim trade deal to “divert attention” from the political furore that had erupted in New Delhi following Rahul’s disclosure of contents from former Army chief MM Naravane’s controversial unpublished memoir, Four Stars of Destinyregarding the Indo-China clash in Galwan, Ramesh claimed, “everyone knew the reciprocal tariffs had been challenged in the US Supreme Court and could be reversed; so why couldn’t they (Indian negotiators, led by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal) wait a month”.
With Trump putting up a defiant face, condemning the US top court for its ruling, threatening to slap further tariffs on countries that hadn’t yet entered into deals with the US and asserting that the verdict would have no impact on the deal agreed upon with India on “as requested by Modi”, the Opposition wants the Centre to inform Parliament “the exact status of the deal with the US” and “whether the government will renegotiate for better terms” in light of the Supreme Court order.
Sources in the government said there is a possibility that the Centre’s representatives on the Business Advisory Committees of Parliament may try to “stall the Opposition’s demand” for a detailed discussion on the deal on grounds that “what we have right now is only an interim agreement and a lot of things are still being negotiated and some may be looked at afresh in light of the (Supreme Court) order too… so what is the point of debating something that is not yet final.” The government could also use the excuse of the “urgent legislative business” linked to the Budget and Demands for Grants that needs to be cleared during the Budget Session to blunt the Opposition’s demand.
The Opposition camp, however, believes any such move by the BJP would only “cause disruptions” because the INDIA bloc “will not back down from the demand for a detailed discussion on the deal”.
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