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As Rahul Gandhi slams the US trade deal as a ‘wholesale surrender’, government sources cite Cold War records alleging Congress once accepted CIA funds
Government sources have pointed to an alleged historical pattern within the Congress party of compromising national interests for political survival. File image/Facebook
As the Narendra Modi government formalises an interim trade deal with the United States, a fierce political row has erupted in New Delhi. On Wednesday, Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of a “wholesale surrender” of national sovereignty, alleging that the deal compromises India’s energy and food security. However, government sources have countered this narrative by pointing to an alleged historical pattern within the Congress party of compromising national interests for political survival, citing documented instances of covert foreign collaboration during the Cold War.
The ‘Dangerous’ Legacy of the 1970s
Central to this rebuttal are the explosive revelations found in Paul M McGarr’s book, “Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, and India’s Secret Cold War”. McGarr cites the 1978 memoir of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the former US Ambassador to India, titled A Dangerous Place. In his writings, Moynihan explicitly confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had intervened in Indian domestic politics on at least two occasions by funnelling money to the ruling Congress party.
The primary objective of these covert payments was to thwart the democratic election of communist governments in West Bengal and Kerala. Most damagingly, Moynihan charged that in one instance, CIA funds were passed directly to Indira Gandhi while she served as the president of the Congress party. Given her role as a political confidante to Jawaharlal Nehru and her subsequent elevation to the Cabinet, McGarr argues it is “hard to conceive” that she was unaware of, or not complicit in, these joint initiatives with American intelligence.
Nehru’s Scepticism and Intelligence Stagnation
The government’s critique extends back to the very foundation of India’s intelligence apparatus. McGarr notes that the expansion of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was severely hampered following the removal of Sanjeevi Pillai as Director in July 1950. Prime Minister Nehru remained deeply sceptical of the need for a “geographically diffuse” intelligence network, famously maintaining that such an infrastructure was “beyond our capacity”. The sources say this reluctance to invest in robust, independent intelligence left India vulnerable during a critical era of geopolitical realignment, a void that the Congress party allegedly filled with foreign patronage.
The Irony of ‘Surrender’
The current administration argues that Rahul Gandhi’s rhetoric of “surrender” is deeply ironic when viewed against this backdrop. While the 2026 trade deal is being negotiated as a transparent, bilateral agreement aimed at economic resilience, the historical records suggest that the Congress party once accepted clandestine foreign funding to manipulate provincial elections.
Government proponents suggest that today’s “America First” alignment under the Donald Trump administration is a pragmatic pursuit of India’s $5-trillion economy goals, whereas the historical “Indira-CIA” link represented a direct compromise of the democratic process.
February 11, 2026, 17:37 IST
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