Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asserted that he will “not budge” and will continue to speak up for farmers regardless of any legal or parliamentary action against him, following a notice from Bharatiya Janata MP Nishikant Dubey seeking his expulsion through a substantive motion.

“Narendra Modi has sold the country and its farmers,” Gandhi said in a video posted on social media. “You put cases against me, abuse me. Do whatever you want, file a privilege motion, it does not matter to me, I have spoken the truth in Parliament, you may not like it, that is a different matter, but the country knows the truth.”

He accused Modi of being “anti-farmer”, and of “selling” the interests of the country in the trade deal with the United States.

Gandhi has alleged that in the recently-announced trade deal, the BJP-led Union government compromised India’s energy security and harmed farmers’ interests.

On Thursday, Dubey submitted a notice for a substantive motion against Gandhi for allegedly “fomenting public sentiments” in Parliament through foreign funding.

A substantive motion is a formal proposal placed before the House for discussion and decision. If admitted by the speaker, it entails a debate followed by a compulsory vote.

In his notice, the BJP MP said that Gandhi has engaged with the Soros Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development, and travelled to countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the US to take part in “anti-India activities”.

Dubey alleged in the notice that Gandhi has “very cleverly…captured the most pious dais of Parliament to foment public sentiments, levelling unsubstantiated allegations…against the Election Commission…[and] Supreme Court…lowering the dignity of the government without any substantive evidence and putting various other institutions in bad light”.

He also said that Gandhi’s conduct is unethical and added that the Congress leader is a key part of a “thuggery gang to destabilise India from within”.

Gandhi, participating in the debate on the Union Budget on Wednesday, alleged that the BJP-led Union government had “sold Bharat Mata” through the trade deal between India and the United States.

He claimed the deal was a “wholesale surrender” with India’s energy security handed over to the US and farmers’ interests compromised.

The Congress leader also mentioned that Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s name featured in the Epstein files.

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

The documents released on January 30 contained email exchanges between Puri and Epstein that began in June 2014.

Puri has said his conversations with Epstein had nothing to do with the crimes for which the American financier had been convicted.

On Wednesday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the BJP “will demand expunging of whatever lies Rahul Gandhi has spoken”.