Prayagraj: Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, member Congress political affairs committee, ex-AICC delegate, Shekhar Bahuguna claimed that India will soon become a dumping ground for American products that will hurt the interests of the farmers and small and medium industries here. “This deal is a betrayal to all that India stands for and all that India stood for over the last 75 years. This is not a deal which is in our interest. This is a total surrender. India has been made into a dumping ground by this deal. I do not want to call it a deal, as a deal is amongst equals and you sit across the table and negotiate. A deal cannot be with a gun held on your head…. It is blackmail, it is a surrender,” he retorted while replying to media queries.
He said this is not a pact with the U.S., but a “compromise with our self-esteem and the interests of our farmers, MSMEs and the middle-class. With this deal, the back of farmers would be broken further, and the coming days will prove how farming in the country would be destroyed due to this deal.”
Shekhar Bahuguna said Modi government now works according to the U.S. time, alleging that all decisions, whether about announcing a ceasefire of military conflicts or a trade deal, are taken in the U.S. He alleged that this is not the first time that Modi has been seen “surrendering” India’s interests before other countries. India will slash import duties to help American farmers at the cost of Indian farmers.
“You have seen Narendra Modi giving clean chits to China. Now, we have gone and announced that we will buy products worth $500 billion over the next five years from the US. There is no corresponding commitment from the US. Your import bill with the US, from $40-42 billion a year, will have to go up to $100 billion a year. You know about the health of the rupee and the health of the economy. Where are you getting the money from and what are the products you will buy? In fact, by doing so, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government may be effectively wiping out India’s trade surplus of USD 45 billion and replacing it with a growing trade deficit with the US. Even the erstwhile British East India Company might have envied such a one-way deal,” he said sarcastically.
“The obvious target in this respect would be to divert crude imports from Russia – which at peak were over USD 45 billion annually – almost entirely to the US. Diverting Russian oil purchases is the lowest-hanging fruit. One doesn’t know how Russia will view this move by India. The ‘condition’ imposed by the US for the lower tariff is that India will stop buying energy from Russia — raising questions of bullying and sovereignty,” he mentioned.
He argued that the agreement would open Indian markets to greater competition without adequate safeguards for domestic producers, particularly farmers and small manufacturers. It claimed the framework risks deepening vulnerabilities in agriculture and the unorganised industrial sector.
