ANI
08 Mar 2026

Thiruvananthapuram (Keralam) [India], March 7 (ANI): 'An unstable and dangerous phase' is what Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the planet is entering as the tensions in West Asia continue to escalate, adding that the future of the war is unpredictable.

Addressing a gathering at the concluding session of the 'Puthuyuga Yatra' led by Kerala LoP VD Satheeshan here, Rahul Gandhi expressed concerns over the safety of the Indian diaspora living in the Middle East in these times of distress, and asked people to protect their 'strength and assets.'

'We have millions of our brothers and sisters who live in middle east and send remittances back from there to India. They are worried about what is going to happen in the world. In fact, it is almost impossible to predict what will happen in the war between the US and Iran. But what one can confidently say is that we are entering an unstable and dangerous phase on the planet. So we have to be careful and protect our strength and our people. Most of all, you have to protect your assets and your strength...,' Rahul Gandhi said.

Meanwhile, the theatre of war has seen no relenting. A wave of Israeli airstrikes in Tehran and central Iran on Friday night targeted several key Iranian military sites, including an underground ballistic missile factory and a military academy, the IDF said as the war entered its eighth day.

Countering that, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that on Friday night it had launched the 23rd wave of Operation True Promise 4, highlighting the deployment of new-generation missile systems against targets in the occupied territories and US bases across the region. According to the statement, the latest wave involved advanced missile systems designed to strike multiple targets.

Further, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being 'controlled' by US President Donald Trump for signing the trade deal.

Addressing the gathering at the concluding session of the Puthuyuga Yatra in Kerala here, Gandhi called the deal a betrayal of the country by the PM, adding that its consequences will be borne by the people of the country.

The Leader of Opposition (LoP) Lok Sabha accused PM Modi of letting the country down by opening the agriculture sector to the US, signing away our energy security, letting the US extract our data, and buying a million dollars' worth of imports from the US.

'I must say that the PM has let the country down. He has betrayed the country. I do not use the word lightly but precisely because I believe that the PM has betrayed the country when he signed the US deal. And the result of it is going to be borne by the people of our country. By our farmers, by our small and medium business owners and by our workers. No PM before him has opened agriculture to American agriculture,' Gandhi said, adding that owing to this deal, large Americanised firms are going to compete with small labour-intensive firms.

'The result is going to be devastating in the agriculture sector and for our cotton, dal, soybean and fruit farmers,' he said.

Further commenting on the US' 30-day waiver allowing India to purchase Russian oil amid the escalating West Asia tensions, Rahul Gandhi asked why India needs US permission over its oil imports.

'The second thing our PM has signed away is our energy security. Imagine that the PM of India has committed to President Trump that India will only buy oil from whom America wants it to buy oil. Imagine that a country as powerful as ours has to take permission from the US if it wants to buy oil from Russia,' he said.

Gandhi further said that the PM has allegedly allowed the US to extract data from the country, adding that India has agreed to US imports worth millions of dollars as a result of this deal.

'The third thing that Trump has extracted from PM Modi is data. The most valuable asset that India has is the data that we produce. Any talk on AI has to be based on data. And our 1,4 billion people produce the largest amount of data on the planet. This includes medical data, data on the movement of people, and communication data,' Rahul Gandhi said.

'The final thing he has done is that he promised Trump that we will buy millions of dollars of imports from the US. 9 lakh crore imports from America every year,' he added.

Stating that 'no Indian PM would do this under natural circumstances', Rahul Gandhi claimed that the reason for the PM's surrender to the US is that he is compromised.

On the other hand, Union Minister Piyush Goyal hit out at Rahul Gandhi last month, calling him a 'habitual liar' and accusing him of misleading farmers with what he termed a 'fake narrative' regarding the trade agreement with the United States, over Gandhi's previous attacks on the deal.

In a self-made video posted on X, Goyal alleged that Rahul Gandhi had 'broken all records of speaking falsehood' and made 'baseless allegations' in a video released.

He further accused the Congress leader of attempting to provoke farmers.

'Rahul Gandhi is a habitual liar...In a video released today, he has broken all records of speaking falsehood and made baseless allegations. He is misleading our farmers with his fake narrative and trying to provoke them...Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been empathetic towards our farmers. He has always put the interest of farmers first and taken all decisions to ensure their prosperity...In the recent trade deal with the United States of America, the interests of farmers have been kept paramount and fully protected...,' he said in the video.

Goyal added, 'In this agreement, all major crops of farmers, including wheat, rice, millets, soya meal, corn, GM food products, spices, and potatoes have been fully safeguarded. We have also fully protected the interests of farmers producing major fruits, including apples. India's doors have not been opened to dairy products or poultry. The truth is that many of our products, including basmati rice, fruits, spices, tea, marine products, and many more, will find new markets, increase our exports, and boost farmer incomes. We have opened huge markets for cotton textile exports, which will increase the demand for cotton, benefiting our cotton farmers.'

Goyal said the US trade deal will benefit farmers by boosting exports, increasing demand and ensuring better prices, leading to their continued prosperity. (ANI)