A sharp political broadside landed on Thursday, 6 August 2026, when AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of suppressing an industry report on ethanol and forcing a policy direction onto the country at the behest of the United States — a charge that cuts to the heart of India's energy sovereignty debate.

Kejriwal alleged that the government compelled SIAM — the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, India's apex auto-industry body — to withdraw a report raising technical concerns about higher ethanol blends. 'U forced SIAM to withdraw their report,' he wrote, calling the move 'Gundagardi' (strong-arm tactics). He further claimed Modi is 'under pressure from Trump to buy ethanol from the US' and is 'bulldozing ethanol on the whole country against all scientific evidence.'

What SIAM Has Said About High Ethanol Blends

SIAM has, over several years, publicly flagged technical risks associated with ethanol blends above E10 (10% ethanol). The concerns are concrete: engine wear, fuel-system corrosion, and warranty complications for vehicles not engineered for higher blends. These are industry-wide concerns shared by auto manufacturers globally, not unique to India.

The government's push toward E20 — a 20% ethanol blend — was accelerated in 2021, when the E20 target was advanced from 2030 to 2025. The move sits within the National Policy on Biofuels, notified in 2018, which expanded feedstock options and set progressively higher blending mandates to cut crude oil imports and bolster income for sugarcane farmers.

The US Ethanol Angle and Trade Pressure

US-India trade negotiations have periodically included American requests for greater market access for US agricultural products, including ethanol. Kejriwal's claim — that the current ethanol push is driven by pressure from US President Donald Trump rather than domestic science or policy logic — is a politically explosive one. It frames a flagship energy programme not as an act of national interest but as a concession to a foreign power.

The research background notes that the specific claim about SIAM being forced to withdraw a report, and the precise contours of any 2026 US pressure on ethanol purchases, cannot be independently verified. The Ministry of Petroleum has not yet issued a formal response to these allegations.

Why the Ethanol Debate Has Long-Running Stakes

India's ethanol blending programme has bipartisan roots — successive governments have expanded it to reduce dependence on crude imports and provide assured revenue to sugarcane growers, a politically significant constituency. Oil marketing companies have signed long-term offtake agreements with sugar mills since 2014, and ethanol procurement volumes have risen sharply in the decade since.

The auto sector's resistance, however, has never fully disappeared. Millions of older vehicles on Indian roads were not built for blends above E10, and a rapid mandatory shift raises real questions about engine longevity and consumer costs — questions that SIAM has consistently put on record.

Whether the government can reconcile farm-income goals, energy security ambitions, trade diplomacy, and automobile-industry concerns — without a credible scientific audit visible to the public — is now a question Kejriwal has forced into the open.