Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been “compromised”, adding that he has “sold out” the “sweat and blood” of the country’s farmers by buckling under pressure from the United States to finalise a trade deal.

Gandhi made the comments while speaking with reporters outside Parliament after he was prevented from quoting excerpts in the Lok Sabha of an unpublished memoir of former Indian Army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China.

He had been mentioning the excerpt during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address.

Gandhi told reporters that this was the first time that the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had not been allowed to speak about the president’s address.

However, the matter related to Naravane was “a side show”, the Congress leader said, adding that the main issue was that “our prime minister has been compromised”.

“I want to say three things,” Gandhi said. “But I cannot speak even the first thing [in the House]. Modi ji is scared.”

The Opposition leader said that the trade deal that had been suspended for four months, “for some reason that Prime Minister Modi and I know”, was signed a day earlier.

Indian goods had been facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%, including a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August for buying Russian oil.

On Monday, President Donald Trump said that India and the US had agreed to a trade deal and that he was cutting tariffs imposed on New Delhi to 18% with immediate effect.

On Tuesday, Gandhi claimed that Modi was under “enormous pressure”, adding that the prime minister’s image that had been “inflated with thousands of crores could burst”.

The Opposition leader said that Indian farmers should understand that there had been a “sell-out” of their hard work, and their blood and sweat, by the prime minister through this deal.

“He has not just sold you off, but the whole country,” the Rae Bareli MP said. “That is why they are not allowing me to speak [inside the House].”

Gandhi also referred to an alleged $265 million bribery and fraud case against Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani in the US, adding that this was not targeting the industrialist but Modi’s “financial structure”.

In November 2024, the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York indicted Gautam Adani in the case.

The US Department of Justice alleged that executives of the conglomerate participated in a scheme to bribe officials in India for solar energy contracts, then misrepresented the company’s anti-bribery practices to investors in the US. The details of the alleged bribes were concealed to secure financing, the justice department claimed.

While the indictment document outlines conspiracy to obstruct justice and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Adani and his executives were not charged with these counts.

However, the indictment document names Gautam Adani, among others, in what it describes as a “massive bribery scheme”.

The Adani Group has denied the allegations and vowed legal action. In November 2024, the Adani Group said in a stock exchange filing that Gautam Adani had been charged in the US for securities fraud, not bribery.

On Tuesday, Gandhi further said that the “Epstein files had more matter”.

The “Epstein files” refer to millions of documents, emails, photos and videos released by the US Department of Justice detailing the activities of Jeffery Epstein, an American financier and convicted child sex offender, and his social circle that included politicians, celebrities and several public figures.

A purported email from Epstein to a person named Jabor Y that was part of a fresh set of files made public on Friday had a reference to one of Modi’s visits to Israel.

On Saturday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that “allusions” made about Modi in an email message that is part of the Epstein files “deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt”.

The Congress leader told reporters on Tuesday that the Epstein files and the case against Adani in the US were two “pressure points” for the Union government.

Later in the day, Gandhi on social media reiterated that Modi was “compromised”, adding that he was “too afraid to let me speak in Parliament about Naravane, Epstein Files and how he has surrendered on tariffs”.