'Huglomacy': Opposition slams India-US trade deal, sees ‘surrender’ to Trump

The announcement of the India-US trade deal may have been hailed by the government as a diplomatic and economic breakthrough, but the opposition has responded with a fierce counter-narrative — one that frames the agreement as rushed, opaque and tilted dangerously against India’s farmers and strategic autonomy.

Within hours of US President Donald Trump declaring that Washington and New Delhi had struck a trade pact, Congress leaders accused the Modi government of allowing the contours of India’s economic future to be revealed not in Parliament, but through Trump’s late-night posts and statements.

The party demanded that the full text of both the India-US and India-EU trade deals be tabled and debated in Parliament, warning that critical national interests may have been compromised behind closed doors.


Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh led the charge, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “completely surrendered” to Trump. “From the information President Trump has provided, it is abundantly clear that India stands diminished by this unfortunate sequence of events,” Ramesh said, drawing a sharp contrast between the optics of Modi’s earlier White House visits — marked by what he called “huglomacy” — and what he described as a steady erosion of India’s negotiating position.

Ramesh linked the trade deal to a broader pattern, arguing that ties began to fray after Trump’s May 2025 announcement claiming US intervention in halting Operation Sindoor. He pointed to Trump’s subsequent public warmth toward Pakistan’s leadership as evidence that personal diplomacy had yielded little strategic insulation. The fact that Trump announced the trade deal himself, late at night in India, only reinforced the opposition’s charge that New Delhi had ceded narrative and leverage.

At the heart of the opposition’s critique is agriculture. Multiple Congress leaders cited statements by US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claiming that India had liberalised agricultural imports for American producers.

Addressing reporters in the Parliament House complex after Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha as he insisted on quoting from an article that cited former Army chief MM NAravane's unpublished "memoir", Gandhi said it is for the first time in history that the Leader of Opposition has not been allowed to speak on the president's address.

"We need to understand why a trade deal stuck for about four months was suddenly finalised last evening," Gandhi said adding that "there was huge pressure on Prime Minister Modi".

Asked what kind of pressure he was referring to, Gandhi alleged there is a case against industrialist Gautam Adani in the US and a lot more is to come in the Epstein files.

That concern spilled onto the floor of Parliament, triggering protests and a walkout by opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha, including members of the Congress, AAP and RJD. Shouting slogans and staging demonstrations in the Parliament complex, leaders accused the government of pushing through a deal with far-reaching consequences without legislative scrutiny.



Congress MP Shashi Tharoor struck a more measured tone but echoed the demand for clarity.

Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said, "I want to know what it contains. The Opposition is only asking for clarity. We don't know what the deal contains. We have Mr Trump's tweet and Mr Modi's tweet; is that enough in a parliamentary democracy? Shouldn't the Govt of India come and explain to the people of the country what's in the deal?"

The criticism grew sharper at the state level. Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge likened the trade deal to a “GST Bachao Utsav,” accusing the government of celebrating a tariff reduction that still left Indian goods facing 18% duties in the US, while American products allegedly entered India duty-free. “I don’t know what the government is celebrating,” he said, calling the arrangement fundamentally imbalanced.

Congress MP Pramod Tiwari went further, questioning the symbolism of Trump announcing key decisions affecting India’s economy. “It feels like India’s capital has shifted from New Delhi to Washington, DC,” he said, arguing that such announcements undermined India’s self-respect and strategic autonomy."

“It is unfortunate that while Parliament was in session, the trade deal was announced by Donald Trump without any details from the Indian government," CPI(M) MP John Brittas told PTI.



In repeated statements, the Congress also flagged Trump’s claim that India would stop buying discounted Russian oil in favour of US and Venezuelan supplies — another assertion the government has yet to publicly clarify. What exactly has India agreed to, the party asked, warning that reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to “zero” could hurt domestic industry, traders and farmers alike.

The government, for its part, has highlighted the headline gain: reduced tariffs on Indian exports to the US and expanded market access. Prime Minister Modi welcomed the deal, saying it would boost “Made in India” products globally. The agreement follows closely on the heels of India’s landmark trade pact with the European Union, billed as the “mother of all deals.”