Samajwadi Party National President and MP Akhilesh Yadav speaks in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing budget session in New Delhi on Tuesday (February 10, 20260. Photo: Sansad TV via ANI
Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) alleged that the interim trade deal between India and the US was “one-sided” and would open up Indian markets to the United States at the expense of farmers.
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Participating in the Union Budget debate in the Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said it was not a “deal” but a “dheel (concession)”. Mr. Yadav said the trade deal was one-sided and would hurt the farming community because of agricultural imports from the US.
No clarity on oil purchases
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the trade deal looked more like a “pre-committed purchase agreement” and alleged that Union ministers S Jaishankar and Piyush Goyal were playing “ping pong” when questions were raised. Another party MP Karti Chidambaram said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman needs to clarify where India can buy oil from (due to US restrictions on oil purchases from Russia). “Will these decisions be taken sovereignly in India or in the White House,” he asked.
Mr Yadav said the interim trade deal between India and the US would hurt the industry’s prospects and dampen the government’s ‘Made in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Separate India)’ initiatives. He said the deal would flood Indian markets with American agricultural products and farmers would have nothing to grow in their fields.
The SP chief said the Union Budget was “directionless” and would not help fulfill the dreams of a developed India by 2047.
Mr. Tharoor, MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said that at a time when India’s total bilateral trade with the US is about $130 billion and the trade surplus is nearly $45 billion, the government has surprisingly promised to buy $500 billion worth of American goods over five years.
He said the government’s claim that India secured a “better deal” than China, Vietnam or any other Asian economy does not stand up to scrutiny because while India may have achieved a one or two percentage point reduction in tariffs, no East Asian economy has agreed to deliberately dilute its trade surplus with the US through guaranteed purchase commitments.
“No major economy has ever neutralized its own trade influence in this way. While the US continues to impose import tariffs on Indian exports of up to 18%, we have committed to reducing tariffs to near-zero levels, opening up agriculture, diluting data localization, softening intellectual property safeguards and even redirecting strategic energy imports, particularly away from Russia, to meet procurement targets.”
Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee accused the ruling party of practicing “subscription federalism” and alleged that West Bengal was neglected in the Union Budget. According to him, the current government practices favoritism.
“Achilesh spoke before me. He said he wanted to see what UP received in this budget. The finance minister spoke for 85 minutes. Bengal was not mentioned even once,” he said.
“Poor Winding Under Taxes”
Mr. Banerjee said that the common man is reeling in taxes. “The Finance Minister seems to be practicing the Robin Hood model in reverse. She is draining the poor with taxes and inflation while rewarding the rich with concessions and privileges. Even a cup of tea comes with GST, but the relief for the common man comes with conditions, clauses, conditions and regulations. This is not a simple tax regime. This is a maze where only the powerful know the way out while honest taxpayers remain.”
Mr. Karti Chidambaram said Ms. Sitharaman should clear doubts about India’s oil purchases as both Mr. Goyal and Mr. Jaishankar were pointing fingers at each other. “Are we allowed to buy oil from Russia, Iran? We are obliged to buy oil from Venezuela,” he asked.
He said budgets were losing relevance and noted that “if one sees the implementation of many missions announced earlier like AMRUT and National Nutrition Mission, one will be very concerned”. “I hope FM remembers the schemes and gives us a status report on each scheme.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said that among all sectors, only defense saw a 15% jump in allocation. According to him, subsidies for food, fertilizers and fuel decreased by 4.47%.
Published – 10 Feb 2026 21:37 IST