Rahul’s rebukes: Punjab Congress leaders must unite

WHEN Rahul Gandhi chose Barnala for his mazdoor kisan maha rally, the target was twofold: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his own divided party in Punjab. Rahul’s sharpest barb was directed at the India-US interim trade pact. He described it as a “death warrant” for farmers and MSMEs. Alleging that the Centre conceded agricultural access under pressure from US President Donald Trump, he warned of a flood of American soybeans, pulses, apples, cotton and walnuts into Indian markets. In a state where agrarian anxiety runs deep, the charge is politically potent. Punjab’s small landholdings and high input costs make the fear of competition from heavily mechanised US farms an easy rallying cry. Rahul’s claim that New Delhi has committed to buying goods worth Rs 9 lakh crore annually and that a deal stalled for months was cleared in “15 minutes” demands clarification from the Centre. If agriculture is indeed part of tariff concessions, farmers deserve transparency. Trade ambition cannot ride roughshod over rural stability.

Barnala was also about Congress housekeeping. The Congress party in Punjab remains hobbled by entrenched factional rivalries, leadership one-upmanship and competing caste-regional loyalties that have repeatedly undercut campaign coherence and booth-level mobilisation. Rahul’s warning to leaders to “team up or sit at home” was overdue. The party cannot hope to channel farm discontent if it remains organisationally fractured ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.

Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar dismissed the visit as theatrics. But the stakes are larger than partisan point-scoring. For the Centre, the issue is safeguarding agriculture while pursuing trade. For Rahul, it is about proving that internal unity can precede external credibility. The test is whether the Congress can convert agrarian anxiety into political momentum or will remain divided in the face of opportunity.