New Delhi, Feb. 12 -- Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took aim at the India-US trade deal, accusing the government of compromising on national interests and asserting that the INDIA bloc would have negotiated a superior agreement, drawing a sharp response from senior Union ministers. Speaking in the Lok Sabha days after a row over his remarks on former army chief General (retd) M.M Naravane's unpublished memoir, Gandhi also tore into the Union Budget and linked Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri to recently released files by the US Department of Justice, triggering a political firestorm and the warning of a privilege motion against him. Participating in the debate on the Union Budget, Gandhi said the government had undercut India's farmers and textile industry and "handed out" data. "Our farmers have been left to the mercy of massive mechanised American firms.our energy security has been handed over.this is a wholesale surrender. It is a tragedy," Gandhi said. Large chunks of his Lok Sabha speech that touched on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the trade deal and alleged US pressure were expunged late at night by parliamentary authorities. Both inside and outside Parliament, and on X, Gandhi attacked the government on the trade deal. "A helpless PM Modi has surrendered to the US 'chokehold' in the trade deal. Under the pretext of "clearing barriers to digital trade", every move to use our data for our own benefit will be opposed.It's a shame that our Prime Minister has been pressured to hand over India's prime resource to a foreign power," he said on X. His comments drew a furious response from the government. "First of all, no man has taken birth in this universe who can touch or sell India. Secondly, the country has never seen a prime minister better than PM Modi," said parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, amid disruptions. In the evening, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hit back. She said the IndiaAI Mission was allocated 2,000 crore rupees in the Budget to keep data within India and enable the country's youth to manage data. She cited this as one of the many indications that Gandhi made allegations against the Budget without reading it. "You are the one who sold India's farmers and the poor. Farmers would have come to the streets if they kept walking with the Congress," she said, referring to the 2013 WTO Bali agreement signed by the UPA-led government. She added that Modi had to fight for India's right and restore procurement of grains from farmers after the agreement in 2014. Further, she criticised former prime minister Manmohan Singh for hyphenating India and Pakistan during diplomacy with the US during the early 2000s. The deal was announced last week after a phone call between Modi and US President Donald Trump. As part of the deal, Washington scrapped its 25% punitive tariff for purchasing Russian oil and reduced the reciprocal tariff to 18%. During his 45-minute speech, Gandhi framed India's negotiating strength around its people and data, calling Indian data the most valuable geopolitical asset in the 21st century. "In a contest between the United States and China, the single most valuable asset is Indian data. If the Americans want to remain a superpower and protect their dollar, the key to that is Indian data," he said. Gandhi said an INDIA bloc government would have negotiated a better deal. "The first thing we would say (to Trump) is that the most important asset in this equation is Indian data. If the US wants to protect the dollar, it must recognise that Indian data is the biggest asset. Second thing, we would say to President Trump that 'if you want access to it, then you will talk to us as an equal, not talk to us as if we are your servants'," Gandhi said. He said an INDIA bloc government would have told Trump that India's energy security was non-negotiable and that, "We are going to protect our energy security". "The third thing we would have told President Trump is 'we understand you have an agricultural voter base, you need to protect farmers, but we will also protect our farmers'," Gandhi said. "We would go there (for negotiating) as an equal. We will not be made equal to Pakistan. If President Trump decided that the Pakistan Army chief will have breakfast with him, we will have something to say about it," he said. "We have bucked up on tariffs, handed out our data, given up control over digital trade rules, no data localisation, free data flow to the USA, limit on digital tax, no source code disclosure and 20-year tax holiday," he added....