Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “frightened and compromised,” alleging that he (Prime Minister) was deliberately preventing him from speaking in Parliament to avoid discussion on sensitive issues including the Epstein files, the Adani case in the United States, and India’s recent trade deal with Washington.
Speaking to reporters inside the Parliament House complex after, what he said, being stopped from participating in the discussion on the President’s Address, Gandhi said Lok Sabha had been adjourned for the fourth time since Monday to prevent him from raising these issues.
“The Prime Minister is scared. He is frightened and compromised,” Gandhi alleged. “He is afraid of me speaking certain things in Parliament — which he knows, and I know.”
Gandhi suggested that potential future revelations linked to the Epstein files and ongoing legal proceedings involving industrialist Gautam Adani in the US were the Prime Minister’s “pressure points”.
“The Naravane issue is only a sideshow,” he said, referring to remarks linked to former Army chief M M Naravane’s memoirs on the 2020 Ladakh face-off with China. “The main issue is something else, and that is what the Prime Minister is afraid of.”
According to Gandhi, the case against Adani in the US was not merely about a corporate group but struck at the heart of the ruling party. “Adani is directly linked to the BJP’s financial structure. The real target is the Prime Minister and the BJP,” he alleged, adding that Modi was under “tremendous pressure” and that his carefully built public image “could burst anytime.”
The Congress leader also launched a sharp attack on the recently signed US trade deal, alleging that national interests had been sacrificed under external pressure.
“By signing this deal, the Prime Minister has sold out the interests of farmers and betrayed their blood and sweat,” Gandhi said. “The negotiations had been going on for months and were stalled. Suddenly, the deal was signed last evening — for reasons known only to him and the Prime Minister.”
He claimed that the agreement was finalised under pressure and was “not in the interest of the country.”
Gandhi said that for the first time in India’s parliamentary history, a Leader of Opposition was not being allowed to speak during the debate on the President’s Address.
“This has never happened before. The Leader of the Opposition is entitled to speak. There is no question of seeking ‘permission’,” he said, objecting to the presiding officer’s use of the term in reference to his participation.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi had tabled an article related to Naravane’s memoirs in the House but was interrupted shortly after he began speaking. The proceedings were adjourned repeatedly amid protests and disruptions.
“The country should understand that the Prime Minister is compromised,” Gandhi reiterated. “The people of India must think who compromised him and how.”
