‘Misleading people on false grounds’: Piyush Goyal slams Rahul Gandhi’s Indian farmers being sacrificed remark

Piyush Goyal

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Friday launched an attack at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his claims that the interim India-US trade deal would hurt the interests of Indian farmers.

“Dairy, maize, soybean, poultry is exempt from US trade deal. We have preserved the interests of farmers, dairy. No GM foods will come into India. The deal preserves our interests,” said Goyal at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit.

Goyal claimed Gandhi tries to mislead people on false grounds, reiterating that the India-US interim trade deal protects India’s interests.

“It pains me greatly to see Rahul Gandhi making such a foolish mistake, that our farmers, who are simple and hardworking, are not aware of the depth of all these things… he tries to mislead them on false grounds. Then it dawns on us that Rahul Gandhi is compromised, and the Gandhi family has been compromised for years,” said Goyal, adding that Rahul Gandhi is trying to mislead the countrymen.

On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that US President Donald Trump had used the 'Epstein files' to threaten Prime Minister Narendra Modi into signing a trade deal that would “sacrifice” Indian farmers. The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha was speaking at a farmers’ convention in Peravoor, Kannur district.

“Indian farmers are small farmers with low levels of mechanisation. American farmers have massive farms and high levels of mechanisation. It is a criminal act to allow access to Indian agriculture markets for American farmers,” he said.

This wasn’t the first time that Gandhi attacked the ruling government over the deal.

In a major judicial rebuke, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the tariffs introduced by Donald Trump in his second term, ruling that the president had unlawfully expanded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 to impose sweeping duties on multiple nations.

The United States had first slapped a 25 per cent tariff on India in August 2025 and later doubled it to 50 per cent with an additional duty tied to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian crude. Earlier this month, the two sides agreed on a roadmap for an interim trade agreement that would bring tariffs down to 18 per cent, though the framework still needs to be translated into a formal legal pact before implementation.