PM decided to prostrate before Trump, says Rahul on UPI charge

Mounting a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government over the introduction of a charge on certain UPI transactions, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) accused the Prime Minister of “prostrating” before U.S. President Donald Trump and demanded an immediate rollback of the decision.

In a video posted on X, Mr. Gandhi said Mr. Modi had “decided to lie down straight and prostrate himself in front of Donald Trump”, and accused the government of imposing a “UPI tax” on Indians to give “a huge amount of money” to the United States.

“Indira Gandhi ji was once asked whether she leans left or right and her response was, ‘I don’t lean left, I don’t lean right, I stand straight’. Modi ji has a completely different concept. He is neither left nor right, he has decided to lie down straight and prostrate himself in front of Donald Trump,” Mr. Gandhi said.

 “Modi ji, stop lying down in front of the U.S., have a spine, stand up and rollback the UPI tax”, Mr. Gandhi added.

The Congress has sought to link the UPI decision to what it describes as growing U.S. pressure on India, including demands for changes to the zero merchant discount rate (MDR) regime for UPI. The party has also stepped up its attack following moves in the U.S. Congress to impose tariffs on countries buying oil and gas from Russia.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the U.S. Trade Representative had earlier criticised UPI for being free and for having displaced card companies such as Visa and Mastercard.

“Here, the Modi government has given into a U.S. demand to get rid of zero MDR and charge for UPI,” Mr. Ramesh said, questioning why the rate had been fixed at 0.4% and whether the move was intended to enable U.S. card companies to compete with UPI.

“The PM has redefined NOTA — Narendra’s Ongoing Trump Appeasement,” he said.

‘Policy failure’

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, reacting to the U.S. tariff legislation, said the threat of higher tariffs showed that the government’s foreign and trade policies had “miserably failed”.

“From tariffs and trade to H1B1 immigration, visas and digital payments, the pressure from Washington keeps mounting, and you, ‘Howdy Modi ji’ keeps surrendering!” Mr. Kharge said on X.

Earlier, Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said: “We are not playing ball with America and China. We are the ball.”

The government, however, said the new MDR is not a charge on consumers. Under the decision announced on Tuesday (September 15, 2026), a 0.4% fee will apply to merchant transactions above ₹2,000 from October 15, while person-to-person transactions and small payments will remain free.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate rejected the government’s position, saying the move would ultimately increase costs for ordinary users. She said a ₹5,000 transaction would attract a ₹20 fee and a ₹10,000 transaction a ₹40 fee, and alleged that the decision had been taken at the behest of American companies.

Ms. Shrinate also questioned why the government and the Reserve Bank of India could not bear the cost of running the UPI ecosystem and sought an assurance that charges would not subsequently be extended to other transactions.