‘Have a spine, stand up’: Rahul says Modi ‘prostrating’ before Trump over UPI fee

• Rahul Gandhi accuses Narendra Modi of ‘prostrating’ before Donald Trump and demands rollback of the new UPI fee

• Congress links the 0.4 per cent MDR on specified merchant transactions above Rs 2,000 to alleged US pressure to end India’s zero-MDR regime

• Government rejects the charge, saying consumers will not pay the MDR and that person-to-person UPI transactions will remain free

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 16 September accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘prostrating’ himself before US President Donald Trump and alleged that the government’s decision to introduce a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on certain UPI transactions amounted to giving ‘a huge amount of money’ to the United States.

In a video posted on X, Gandhi urged Modi to ‘stop lying down in front of the US, have a spine, stand up’ and roll back what he called the ‘UPI tax’.

The attack came a day after the government introduced a 0.4 per cent MDR on specified person-to-merchant UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, with the new framework coming into effect from 15 October.

The charge, however, will not be levied on consumers. The government has said all person-to-person UPI transactions will remain free, while merchant payments of up to Rs 2,000 and transactions covered by the zero-MDR framework for small merchants will also remain free. It estimates that around 96 per cent of merchant transactions will remain unaffected.

Gandhi nevertheless linked the decision directly to US pressure on India’s digital payments ecosystem.

‘Indiraji 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”. Modiji 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,’ Gandhi said.

‘He has put a tax on every single Indian person by taxing UPI and giving a huge amount of money to the United States,’ he alleged. ‘Modi ji, rollback the UPI tax. Now,’ he said in a post accompanying the video.