Congress likely to focus on trade deal as Budget discussion gets underway in Lok Sabha

The Congress party is likely to step up its pressure against the Narendra Modi Government over the Indo-U.S. trade deal, with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi likely to focus on it when he takes part in the discussion on the Union Budget on Wednesday (February 11, 2026).

The Lok Sabha, which has been paralysed since February 2, started functioning on Tuesday (February 10, 2026), after the Opposition submitted a notice to move a resolution against Speaker Om Birla for conducting the proceedings in a “partisan” manner.

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Before moving the petition, senior Opposition leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP), K.C. Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress, Abhishek Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, and T.R. Baalu of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) met Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to end the stalemate, but were unsuccessful.

The Opposition agreed to allow normal functioning since it wants to raise crucial issues, including the trade deal, during the Budget discussion.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Gandhi pointed to a poster Opposition MPs were carrying near the Makar Dwar of Parliament during their protest, which read ‘Narender Surrender’.

“This has happened”, in the Indo-U.S. trade deal, he said.

In a statement posted on his X handle, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed the trade agreement sacrificed India’s strategic national interests and exposed the betrayal of the Modi government.

“Fine print of the Indo-U.S. trade deal has exposed how PM Modi mortgaged India’s national interests,” Mr. Kharge alleged, terming it “trapped surrender”.

The truth of the “trap deal” was now slowly coming out, he said, listing four key objections to the pact.

Referring to the issue of Russian oil, he said the White House fact sheet now listed “India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil” as a condition for the removal of an additional 25% tariff, even though the joint statement had not mentioned it.

Why had the government agreed to such “erosion of sovereignty”, Mr. Kharge asked, adding that the Congress had already flagged the U.S. executive order on monitoring India’s oil imports.

Mr. Kharge alleged that the government had “back-stabbed” farmers by opening agriculture to foreign goods. Pulses were added to the February 9 fact sheet although absent in the February 6 joint statement, he said. References to animal feed utility for red sorghum had disappeared, he said, while imports of dried distillers’ grains (DDGs) and sorghum could hurt dairy farmers and cattle.

“Two crore dairy farmers will suffer the consequences, but the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)-Sangh Parivar-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), who carry out lynchings in the name of the cow, are hell-bent on destroying our country’s cattle population,” Mr. Kharge alleged.

The deal would hurt the apparel sector, especially because of American concessions to Bangladesh, the Congress said.