Calls Upon the working Class to March towards the 12 February 2026 General Strike - to protect the sovereignty and the interests of the people and the Nation.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) flays the Modi Government for shamelessly surrendering to the US pressure under some mischievous and hidden reasons; the clandestine Bilateral Trade Agreement, as announced by the US President, if it comes into action, will be the most deadly action against the interests of crores of Indian workers, peasants, and Indian economic sovereignty at large. This surrender blatantly exposes the anti-National, anti-People character of the Modi government.
The desperation clearly vindicates CITU’s position on the US tariff as a weapon to subjugate other countries and finally to impose trade deals jeopardising the sovereignty of other nations in general and India in particular. This is a direct transfer of crisis, and the impact will be irreversible damage to the Indian economy and the livelihood of the people.
As per the claim by Mr. Trump, the Indian Government has agreed to stop buying cheaper Russian oil (40% of our total oil imports) and promised to purchase high-priced or low-quality oil from the US; along with this, the Modi Government has promised to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers on US goods to zero.
Further, Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Modi has committed to “buy American” at much higher levels, in addition to over USD 500 billion worth of US energy, technology, agricultural products, coal, and other goods, will severely hit Indian industries and the workers employed in them.
Certainly, the import duty exemptions on various goods proposed in the Budget are in line with that policy itself. The proposals for duty-free imports of civil aviation goods, customs exemptions on nuclear energy imports until 2037, tax holidays for foreign companies investing in data cloud centres in India until 2047, and the reduction of duty from 20 per cent to 10 per cent on imports of goods for personal use predominantly serve the interests of foreign corporates, particularly those from the USA.
The timing of the US President’s assent to the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear framework terms, soon after the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 was passed by Parliament in December 2025 — exempting civil liability of companies supplying equipment, technology, and constructing nuclear reactors — was an earlier similar step by Trump in response to the Modi Government’s initiatives to serve the interests of US corporates.
The US Secretary of Agriculture has posted this as the victory of the “America First” agenda and expects that US agricultural products will flood India’s massive market. This will push the agrarian crisis further.
The grand silence of Mr Modi on all these aspects, while thanking for keeping the reciprocal tariff at 18 per cent, speaks volumes about the underlying surrender of the interests of the Indian people to US corporate and imperialist interests, and raises questions about the hidden reasons behind this sudden move.
CITU flays the Modi Government’s surrender to US arm-twisting tactics and demands that the Government place the ongoing Indo-US Bilateral Trade Agreement before Parliament. CITU warns that any advancement without discussion with the stakeholders — the workers, farmers, traders, and civil society organisations — will cause massive agitation across the country. CITU calls upon the Indian working class to campaign against this unacceptable surrender to US imperialism and march towards the 12th February General Strike — to protect the sovereignty and the interests of the people and the nation.
Issued by,
(Elamaram Kareem)
General Secretary
