India, Feb. 10 -- In a sharp attack on the BJP-led central government on the recently announced India-US trade, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said the deal looks less like a free trade agreement than a pre-committed purchase agreement that "overturns every principle of reciprocity."

"How can we speak of a reciprocal tariff of 18 percent on one side and zero percent on the other?," Tharoor said in the Parliament in the ongoing Budget session. The senior Congress leader pointed that India's total bilateral trade with the US is roughly 130 billion USD with a trade surplus of only USD 45 billion.

"We have surprisingly promised to buy USD 500 billion dollars worth of American goods over five years. This effectively converts a surplus...