Congress, on Wednesday, launched a sharp criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar over US President Donald Trump’s recent claim that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Congress has questioned whether India’s leadership had compromised the nation's security interests under U.S. pressure.
Trump, speaking in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, reiterated his earlier statement that his administration had successfully mediated a historic ceasefire to halt the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan. He claimed that trade was instrumental in bringing both nations to the table, using the threat of sanctions and trade deals as leverage.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took to microblogging site X, asking what PM Modi and Jaishankar had to say about Trump’s claims.
"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," he wrote on X
He accused the government of potentially "mortgaging" India’s security interests and questioned whether the US had coerced India into agreeing to the ceasefire.
"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?", he questioned on X, further commenting, "Ameriki papa ne war rukwa di kya?" (Did American daddy stop the war?).
Ramesh's last remark is, notably, a pointed reference to a promotional video released on PM Modi’s official YouTube channel in March 2024, implying that India had played a significant role in halting the Russia-Ukraine war to facilitate the evacuation of Indian students.
The Congress has since used the video to draw parallels between PM Modi’s messaging and Donald Trump’s recent claims of mediating between India and Pakistan.
The Congress, on Tuesday night, took aim at Trump’s latest claims, accusing him of not only “hyphenating” India with Pakistan but also drawing an unfavourable equivalence between PM Modi and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharing a clip of Trump’s remarks from the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera wrote: “US President says it again: ‘I used trade to make a deal between them, and they agreed.’ Not only is Donald Trump hyphenating India with Pakistan, he is comparing Prime Minister Modi with Shehbaz Sharif.”
Khera questioned whether such a comparison was acceptable to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Meanwhile, amid the political uproar, New Delhi has reiterated India’s long-standing position on Kashmir, underlining that the matter is strictly bilateral and leaves no room for third-party involvement. The Ministry of External Affairs reaffirmed that the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are, and will always remain, integral and inalienable parts of India.
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