NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday again asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clean on the repeated claims being bragged by US President Donald Trump that it was the US that brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire on May 10 after four days of intense hostilities.
Speaking at the US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Donald Trump claimed he persuaded both India and Pakistan to “trade goods, not nuclear missiles.”
Crediting trade diplomacy to be the crux of the efforts to ease tensions, Mr Trump also praised leaders of both countries as “smart and strong.”
“What do the typically loquacious PM and EAM have to say about this revelation? Did they mortgage India’s security interests in the face of US pressure,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked in a post on his social media handle X, questioning: “Americi Papa Ne War Rukwaa Di Kya? (Has the American Dad got the war stopped?)”
“A few days ago, we learnt of the ceasefire with Pakistan from the President of the United States. Now, at a public event in Saudi Arabia yesterday, the President reveals that he may have coerced and blackmailed India into this ceasefire using the carrot-and-stick of sanctions and trade deals,” Mr Ramesh claimed.
However, the Ministry of External Affairs has since denied that trade played any part, and the discussions only focused on the military situation.
Also on Tuesday, the Congress came out strongly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he had “deeply disappointed the nation” as he did not clarify the truth behind the US President’s claim that it was the US that brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Claiming that the Prime Minister in his address to the nation on Monday “did not clarify so many things for which the country was waiting to know,” senior party leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, had alleged: “The government has lost both the moral courage and moral authority……. there was shock and surprise across the country over the sudden ceasefire, which was also announced by the US President.”
Agencies