Rahul Gandhi brings up Epstein files, Adani allegations in Lok Sabha

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday raised the Jeffrey Epstein files and allegations concerning the Adani Group in the Lok Sabha, seeking clarification from the government during the Budget Session.

Raising the issue during the proceedings, Gandhi questioned the government over reports concerning references to the Prime Minister in recently released investigative documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

India had earlier strongly rejected any such reference, with the External Affairs Ministry dismissing it as “trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal” that deserved “utmost contempt”.


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Gandhi also flagged the ongoing scrutiny of the Adani Group in the United States, referring to proceedings involving the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Congress has previously questioned whether the Prime Minister would respond to or facilitate cooperation in the SEC’s probe against the business group.

The government has consistently denied any wrongdoing and rejected allegations linking the Prime Minister to the Epstein documents. The Adani Group has also denied the charges levelled against it.

The remarks led to sharp exchanges in the House as treasury bench members objected to the Opposition’s references.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi claimed that in the ongoing case against the Adani Group, summons had been issued but the Government of India had not responded for the last 18 months.

RaGa Flags Data Sovereignty, Trade Deal Risks in AI Era

Launching a broadside against both the Union Budget and India’s trade engagement with the United States, Gandhi also argued that the government has failed to appreciate the scale of disruption in an increasingly unstable global order. He warned that in the race for technological supremacy, India risks bargaining away its most valuable strategic resource — the data of its 140 crore citizens.

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Drawing an analogy from martial arts, Gandhi said modern power is no longer defined by brute strength but by leverage — the ability to anticipate, redirect and control an opponent’s force. He contended that geopolitics today operates on similar principles, with nations locked in silent contests beneath formal diplomacy. At the heart of that struggle, he said, lies artificial intelligence, and at the heart of AI lies data.

“AI without data is nothing,” Gandhi said, describing India’s vast population as a dynamic reservoir of behavioural, financial and social data that global powers seek to harness. In a world marked by growing rivalry between the United States, China and Russia, he argued, control over data will determine technological and economic dominance.

Criticising the Union Budget, Gandhi said it failed to reflect the urgency of this transition. While acknowledging global uncertainty, he said the document read like a routine fiscal exercise rather than a strategic blueprint for a country facing what he described as a “looming global storm”. He argued that issues such as energy security, financial resilience and technological sovereignty require structural preparedness, not incremental policy responses.

Trade Deal Criticism

Turning to India’s trade negotiations with Washington, Gandhi claimed that New Delhi appears to be conceding ground on digital trade rules, data localisation and taxation without securing meaningful reciprocal guarantees. In any negotiation with a superpower, he said, India’s starting point should be its strongest leverage — its people and their data — and not a posture of accommodation.

He warned that tariff adjustments and import commitments under the agreement could deepen economic asymmetries instead of correcting them. Gandhi said India must negotiate as an equal partner, asserting that its demographic scale and technological potential give it bargaining power few nations possess.

The Congress leader also cautioned that trade and strategic concessions could expose sectors such as textiles and agriculture to external pressure, while foreign influence over energy sourcing could undermine India’s autonomy. Such developments, he said, would amount to the “weaponisation” of finance and fuel, constraining the country’s independent decision-making.

Reiterating his central argument, Gandhi said that in the era of artificial intelligence and intensifying great-power competition, nations that control data will shape the global order. If India fails to safeguard its own strategic assets, he warned, it risks diminishing its influence in the very century it aspires to lead.