Several Opposition MPs, including senior Congress lawmaker K C Venugopal, moved adjournment motions seeking a discussion on the trade deal between India and the US.
Hours after the India-US trade deal was announced, the Opposition is gearing up to corner the government inside Parliament Tuesday on the issue, with questions likely to be raised on India’s “strategic autonomy”.
As Lok Sabha proceedings began, Opposition members made their intentions clear by shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the India-US trade deal. While Opposition members were sloganeering, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House.
India and the US finally agreed to a trade deal that has been months in the making, as US President Donald Trump said Monday that the US “effective immediately” has lowered tariffs on India to 18 per cent from 50 per cent. Trump’s announcement came after India addressed several US demands in its Budget and began signing trade deals with other countries, including the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Sources in Opposition parties told The Indian Express earlier that Opposition parties will focus their Parliament strategy on raising questions over India’s “autonomy” as it had agreed to stop buying Russian oil which will mean it will buy more from the US and potentially Venezuela, and has agreed to purchase $500 billion worth of US energy, agriculture, coal and other products under the trade deal.
Congress communication in charge Jairam Ramesh, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, said, “It is abundantly clear that Prime Minister Modi has, like he did on May 10, 2025, completely surrendered. He has most definitely appeased President Trump. India stands diminished by this unfortunate sequence of events”.
The Congress will demand in both Houses that the text of the trade deals with the US and the EU should be tabled in Parliament.
Ramesh said, “Parliament is in session. The text of both the EU and US trade deals must be laid on the Table of both Houses and debated – especially since the US Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, has issued a statement claiming that India has liberalised agricultural imports from the US.”
The issue of agricultural imports being liberalised will also be something the Opposition will try to exploit in Parliament.
‘What kind of foreign policy is this?’
Terming the situation “as not a win-win for India”, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said: “The way we have brought tariffs and trade barriers down to zero… we agree to buy Venezuelan oil, stop buying Iranian oil, and stop buying Russian oil… Then, the trade barriers on agricultural goods have been removed from our markets. It is not what the Indians expected. What has come from Trump’s side doesn’t seem like a win-win situation at all.”
Other Opposition parties, including the TMC, the Samajwadi Party, and Left parties, will join the ranks in the Houses to raise the issue of the trade deal and try to corner the government.
A Samajwadi Party MP told The Indian Express: “Our farmers are our backbone. Have they been compromised because of the government’s failure and the liberalisation of agricultural imports? For us (the SP), the farm sector is very important because in Uttar Pradesh, a massive section of people are associated with the farm sector. Hence, we plan to raise this issue… Then, we have decided not to buy Russian oil when the country has been a traditional ally of the country for decades. What kind of foreign policy is this?”
Congress MP Manish Tewari, who is also general secretary of the AICC Foreign Affairs department, said: “No purchase of oil from Russia. No tariffs on US imports. American tariffs on Indian imports – 18 per cent… What the hell happened to India’s strategic autonomy?”
Curated by James Chen
