Congress Leaders Meet To Discuss Impact Of India-US Trade Deal On Jammu Kashmir
Jammu Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said that the Congress high command had decided to gauge the impact of the deal across the country.
By ETV Bharat Jammu & Kashmir Team
Published : February 26, 2026 at 4:56 PM IST
Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) on Wednesday took strong exception to the India-US trade deal and maintained that it is bound to hurt the interests of Jammu and Kashmir.
On Thursday, a meeting of Congress legislators, former ministers, senior leaders, district presidents, and others was held here to discuss the impact of the deal on Jammu and Kashmir growers. They claimed that the trade deal would decimate various sectors of J&K, including fruits, walnuts, horticulture and agricultural products.
Speaking to the media, JKPCC President Tariq Hameed Karra said that the Congress high command, led by its President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, had decided to gauge the impact of the deal.
“It was decided to aware people, especially growers, about its impact. This is a technical thing which a common man is not aware of, but a grower knows it very well. In this context, we convened a meeting here, and several leaders spoke about it,” Karra said.
“We will visit every district, where different varieties grow, like apples in a few districts, walnuts in some, saffron in some places, basmati and other things in a few areas. We are planning to meet growers of agriculture, horticulture and apiculture sectors to know what difficulties they face. We will collect all the data regarding that and will finalise the future line of action,” he said.
The JKPCC President said that after collecting the educative and informative data, the Congress party may get into protest mode as well.
Replying to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel, he said India's stated policy was pro-Palestine, and the champion of this policy of India was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“Even if India’s policy changes, which we will not allow, India will stand with Palestine. India’s flip-flop policy has been detrimental in every aspect. This policy hasn’t been confined to Palestine and Southeast Asia, but also to SAARC. SAARC was gaining strength, but after 2014, due to the big-brother, hegemonial and jackboot policies of our PM, we are getting isolated all over the world,” Karra said.
Referring to ‘Operation Sindoor’, he said that neighbouring countries like Bhutan and Nepal stood with the country, but suggested that the foreign policy must be revamped and revisited.
Replying to a query about India’s relations with Israel, Karra said, “We are not talking about relations with Israel but human rights and those issues on which our pro-Palestine policy is based and those parameters which Indira Gandhi and Yasir Arafat took the relations forward.”
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