Barnala, February 28
Issuing a clear warning to the Punjab Congress, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, today made it plain that factionalism will not be tolerated. Speaking at the party’s Maha Rally against the scrapping of MGNREGA and the Indo-US Trade Deal, Rahul, alongside Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge, delivered a strong message: unity is the only path forward.
Rahul cautioned that any leader, regardless of stature, who refuses to work as part of a team will be sent to the “reserve” (those not in the playing team but kept aside as substitutes). The directive was unmistakable – discipline, teamwork and respect for workers must define the Congress in Punjab if it is to win the forthcoming electoral battle.
Towards the end of his speech, Rahul emphasized, “You are all senior leaders sitting here. I want to give a message to that work is done through teamwork. No single player wins a match. Become team players or we send you to the reserves. My and Kharge Ji’s message is that our real strength lies in our workers and hence let us respect them.”
The tone was uncompromising yet motivational: a reminder that the Congress cannot afford internal divisions. By invoking the imagery of a team sport, Rahul underscored that victory in Punjab will only come through collective effort, discipline and respect for the grassroots workers who form the backbone of the party.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people attended the Congress rally. Besides Rahul and Kharge, AICC general secretary in charge of organization KC Venugopal, general secretary in charge Punjab and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, CLP Leader Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Ministers Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Charanjit Singh Channi, former Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Vijay Inder Singla and others.
Kharge and Gandhi said that Punjab was not only the strength of the Congress, but that of the entire country. “When Punjab is safe, the country is safe”, Kharge remarked, while addressing the rally. He called upon farmers and workers to once again unite and launch a decisive struggle to safeguard their rights, saying that recent policy decisions of the Central government threaten the livelihoods of cultivators, labourers and small businesses across the country.
In his address, Rahul lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his meek surrender before the US President Donald Trump over the fear of getting exposed through the Epstein files and also the case against Gautam Adani in the US. He noted that agriculture is the foundation of a country’s economy and no Prime Minister ever, irrespective of which party he/she belonged to, allowed the agriculture market to be opened for the foreigners. He said, even Modi did not want to open it but was made to surrender using the Epstein and Adani sticks.
Rahul disclosed that there were 30 lakh more Epstein files yet to be released which mention Modi’s name. He said Hardeep Puri and Anil AMbani’s name was only mentioned to threaten Modi into surrender which he did and signed the death warrant of the farmers and the medium and small scale industries.
Giving details and providing a background as to how the deal was signed, the Leader of Opposition disclosed that nothing moved for four months about the Indo-US trade deal as the government of India did not want to open the agriculture market to the US companies. He said, all of a sudden Modi was forced to agree to the deal with the Epstien and Adani sticks.
Referring to Modi’s weakness about Adani’s case in the US, he said, the BJP during the last 10-15 years has put the entire financial system in Adani’s company. “Adani is a special purpose vehicle of the BJP”, he remarked, adding, “whatever money is made, goes to Adani. That money is used in politics through thousands of shell companies”. The Americans have filed a criminal case and held Modi by his neck and choked his breath.
Maintaining that this amounted to signing the “death warrant” for the country’s farmers, he pointed out, now the US soybean, pulses, cotton, fruits, almonds, walnuts and everything will come from the US and destroy the Indian farmers. He said that American farmers have huge land holdings worth hundreds and thousands of acres while our farmers have small land holdings. He said, our farmers cannot compete with the American farmers and Modi had put them in an unfair and unequal competition and eventually they will be ruined.
Rahul said, not only did Modi open the agriculture market to the Americans, he handed over to them the huge data we possess. He said, India possesses the largest data in the world and the US cannot compete with China without our data, which Modi meekly handed over to Trump. Emphasising the importance of the data, he said, what oil was to the twentieth century, data is to the twenty-first century. “Modi handing over data to the US is like Saudi Arabia handing over its oil to the US”, he remarked.
Rahul also pointed out that Modi has given a guarantee to Trump that every year, India will buy Rs 9 lakh crore worth of products from the US. “Imagine what will happen to our small scale and medium scale industry?” he asked, while adding, “our small and medium industry which is the foundation of Punjab’s economy along with the agriculture will be destroyed”. He also said that Modi has also surrendered the country’s energy security to the US by submitting to the US diktats of not buying oil from the US and Iran. “What did India get in return?” he asked.
In a special message to the people of Punjab, Rahul said, “Punjab is our strength. I see India’s power and foundation here. You are our saviours and our protectors and we love you”, he told over tens of thousands of people amidst cheers and applause. “Don’t forget I love the people of Punjab. Politics aside, your future, farmers’ future, youth’s future has to be brightened. Punjab has to be made successful”, he asserted.
