Surrender to Trump & India's 'data currency': Rahul Gandhi slams US trade deal & Budget in Lok Sabha

Launching a sweeping attack on both the Union Budget and India’s trade deal with the United States, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday warned Parliament that the government is failing to grasp the realities of a rapidly destabilising world — and risks bargaining away the country’s greatest strategic asset: its data.

Opening with an analogy drawn from martial arts, Gandhi said power in today’s world is no longer about brute force but leverage — the ability to anticipate, redirect and control. That, he argued, is exactly how geopolitics now functions. Nations are locked in silent contests, hidden grips tightening beneath diplomatic smiles, as technology reshapes the battlefield. At the centre of that struggle, he said, sits artificial intelligence, and at the centre of AI is data.

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In a speech that blended global geopolitics with domestic policy critique, Gandhi said the world is shifting from stability to volatility, where power will be determined not by armies but by control over technology and information.

“AI without data is nothing,” he stressed, calling India’s 140 crore people the country’s single greatest strategic asset — a vast, dynamic reservoir of behavioural, commercial and social data that global powers covet. In a world where the United States faces mounting challenges from China and Russia, Gandhi argued, Indian data could become the decisive currency that determines which nation retains technological and financial dominance.

Yet, he said, the Union Budget shows little recognition of that reality. While it gestures at global uncertainty, Gandhi dismissed it as indistinguishable from routine fiscal documents, arguing it lacks serious strategic thinking on energy security, finance or long-term economic sovereignty. A nation facing what he described as a looming global storm, he suggested, cannot afford incremental budgeting when structural preparedness is required.

He then turned sharply to India’s evolving economic engagement with Washington, launching a pointed attack on the government’s trade deal with the United States. Gandhi argued that in any negotiation with a superpower, India’s opening stance should centre on its strongest bargaining chip — data and its people. Instead, he claimed, India appears to be conceding ground on digital trade rules, localisation safeguards and taxation without securing reciprocal guarantees.

According to Gandhi, the agreement risks tilting the balance of commitments heavily in Washington’s favour, warning that tariff shifts and import projections could widen asymmetries rather than correct them. He said India must negotiate as an equal, not a junior partner, especially when its demographic scale and data resources give it leverage few countries possess.

The Congress leader warned that trade and strategic concessions could expose sensitive sectors — from textiles to agriculture — to external pressure, while geopolitical influence over energy sourcing could leave India vulnerable to decisions made outside its borders. Such scenarios, he said, would amount to the “weaponisation” of finance and fuel, limiting India’s strategic autonomy.

According to Gandhi, any negotiation with a superpower should begin with India asserting its leverage — especially its data advantage — and demanding equal terms. Instead, he alleged, India appears to be conceding ground on digital trade rules, localisation safeguards and taxation while receiving limited reciprocal commitments.


Such concessions, he warned, could expose key sectors from textiles to farming to external pressure, while also allowing foreign influence over energy sourcing — a scenario he described as the “weaponisation” of finance and fuel against India’s own interests. At its most combative, Gandhi suggested India should approach global powers as an equal partner, not a subordinate, arguing that a country of India’s demographic scale and technological potential should negotiate from strength.


Throughout the address, Gandhi returned to one core message: in the age of AI and great-power rivalry, the nations that control data will shape the future. And if India fails to guard its own, he warned, it risks surrendering influence in the very century it hopes to lead.