Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, who played a key role in negotiating a trade deal with the United States, spearheaded the government’s response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his “compromised PM” remarks, in which the rival leader levelled a series of serious allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Amid the Lok Sabha leader of opposition’s criticisms of the interim India-US deal, Piyush Goyal called Gandhi a “puppet of foreign powers, anti-India forces, and anti-India organisations.”“Rahul Gandhi has, in a way, demonstrated a high-handed approach to politics before the nation and the world. He is nothing but a puppet of foreign powers, anti-India forces, anti-India organisations, and anti-India governments. This is the compromise Rahul Gandhi and the Gandhi family are making today: whether in Parliament, whether outside, whether in a press conference,” Goyal said. On Rahul calling PM Modi “compromised,” Goyal said the Congress leader was playing with the country and “completely putting the interests of the countrymen at stake”.“…perhaps they cannot tolerate the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the new India, the emerging economy, and India’s dominance in the emerging world. Therefore, they repeatedly compromise national and national interests by telling lies upon lies. And this isn’t a recent incident,” Goyal added.

On Rahul calling PM Modi “compromised,” Goyal said the Congress leader was playing with the country and “completely putting the interests of the countrymen at stake”.

Putting all the members of the Gandhi family, who have ruled the nation, in the dock, the Union minister said the clan never “shied away from compromising the country”.“You saw how Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi wielded extra-constitutional powers even during Manmohan Singh’s government. Sometimes, they even tore up cabinet decisions in front of the press. Disrespecting the Prime Minister, running the government through the National Advisory Council, and imposing a leftist ideology on the country? Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi used to run a parallel cabinet and compromise the country,” Goyal said. He went further back to attack the Nehru-Gandhi family as he highlighted the infamous Bofors scandal that was widely reported during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure and had been the reason behind the fall of his government.“It wasn’t just Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who compromised the country… Rajiv Gandhi also never shied away from compromising the country. We all know how, at Rahul Gandhi’s behest, the Foreign Minister tried to stop the investigation in the Bofors scandal by asking Swedish authorities to do so. We all know how, in order to protect his friend Ottavio Cataracci, an honest investigation was prevented. It’s not known what role the Congress and Rajiv Gandhi played in Bofors... The Gandhi family tarnished the country before the world and compromised it,” Goyal said.The senior BJP leader also accused Indira Gandhi of “compromising” India’s interests by mentioning Ambassador Moynihan’s “CIA funded the Congress party” claims. “Indira Gandhi was no less in compromising the country’s interests. We saw how Ambassador Moynihan confirmed that the CIA repeatedly provided funds to the Congress party for elections and that the Congress party ran its politics through the CIA,” Goyal said.The minister also attacked Rahul over his “behaviour with the press” and accused him of addressing “a curated press conferences”.“We have seen his behaviour with the press. You can’t even ask an uncomfortable question to Rahul Gandhi without being tagged as a BJP-associated press person. He only wants curated press conferences. He can’t take questions other than those he’s given in writing. Such a person is leading the Congress party and playing with the country. They are completely putting the interests of the countrymen at stake,” Goyal alleged.Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made serious allegations against PM Modi, claiming the PM rushed into a trade deal with the United States in the interest of his minister Hardeep Puri and industrialist Gautam Adani, who Rahul said is the “BJP’s financial structure”.

Rahul said: “He (PM Modi) left and called Trump, saying, ‘Sir, I’m ready to do whatever you say'”.

The Gandhi scion claimed Union minister Hardeep Puri’s name in the infamous Epstein files was released to “threaten” the PM, and that there are “videos and messages which have not been released from the millions of Epstein files” held up in the US.In another allegation, Rahul claimed that the case against Adani in the United States is not against the industrialist but against PM Modi, adding that these two were the reasons PM Modi finalised the trade pact with America, which had been stuck for months.Rahul said: “He (PM Modi) left and called Trump, saying, ‘Sir, I’m ready to do whatever you say’, and he sold the country… Narendra Modi is compromised; he was trapped and forced to sign the US-India trade deal.”