Congress plans farmers’ stir on US deal in five states and 1 UT

THe united states congress testament set in motion a targeted run against the India-US merchandise deal in five states and 1 Union Territory where they believe farmers would be worst affected due to the import of American agricultural and food products.The party has identified Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Bihar for a political campaign involving the farmers. According to a party strategist, these states are at the frontline of India’s soyabean, cotton, corn and fruits production.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi are scheduled to meet the Pradesh Congress leaders from these six states on February 20 to chalk out a concrete strategy on how to reach out to farmers and farm bodies in the states. Gandhi met farmer leaders on February 14 and promised to stand with farmers “for their rights, security, and dignity.”On February 6, the White House and the Union government issued a joint statement that said both countries “have reached a framework for an Interim Agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade… which will include additional market access commitments and support more resilient supply chains.”Three days later, the White House had issued a fact sheet that said, “India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all U.S. Industrial goods and a wide range of U.S. Food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products”, among other things.As a part of the campaign, senior leaders with grassroots links such as former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Rajasthan Congress unit chief Sachin Pilot, Lok Sabha MP Deepender Sing Hooda and Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will do a series of press meets in these states over the possible impact of the deal.During the discussion on general budget, Gandhi had almost entirely focused on the India-US trade deal and later claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surrendered and betrayed India’s farmers—a charge steadfastly opposed by the government, with Union home minister Amit Shah alleging that Gandhi is misleading people about the India-US and the India-EU trade deals.Commerce minister Piyush Goyal also lambasted Gandhi’s claims. “Friends, Rahul Gandhi has once again rolled out a stage-managed, most artificial and fake narrative. This time, he’s shooting from the shoulders of a few Congress Party activists who are pretending to be farmer leaders in a completely artificial and baseless conversation. You can see them taking the microphone around, recording their interaction, probably based on a predetermined script, because every claim they have made is false,” Goyal said on social media.The Congress’ outreach plan for farmers in these six states also coincide with its campaign to bring back MGNREGA, which has been replaced by VB G Ram G scheme. A senior Congress strategist added, “The farmer’s agitations against the three farm laws were concentrated in Haryana and Punjab. But the India-US trade deal is set to impact farmers in the six states where we plan to go.”Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala highlighted that “The first major item of import from America is Dried Distillers Grains (DDG), which is actually processed Maize (Corn). India produced 430 Lakh metric tonnes of maize in 2025-26, mainly in the States of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Gujarat. In contrast, America produces 42.50 Crore metric tonnes of maize annually and desperately needs a huge market like India to sell its surplus.”He added that while the agreement allows duty-free import of Soybean Oil, “India produced 153 lakh tonnes of Soybean annually. This is grown mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka, On the other hand, America produced 12 Crore metric tonnes of Soyabean and requires the Indian Market. Once duty free soybean oil imports are allowed in India from America, what will happen to the MSP and livelihoods of India’s Soyabean farmers?”The Congress leader also claimed that the “biggest impact” will be on cotton-growing farmers of India as Indian garments will attract a duty of 18% and it would put Indian garment manufacturers in Tirupur, Surat, Panipat, Ludhiana at a huge disadvantage.