Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday seized on US President Donald Trump's latest claims on the India-Pakistan ceasefire to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the Centre ended the conflict "within five hours" of being asked to do so by America.
Rahul, who was addressing a rally in poll-bound Bihar as part of the "Voter Adhikar Yatra", targeted PM Modi for allegedly agreeing to Trump's demands on ceasefire with Pakistan.
"You know what Trump has said today? He has said that at the height of tensions with Pakistan, he called up Modi and told him to stop the fight within 24 hours. And Modi obeyed promptly. He was given 24 hours, but he did as directed by Trump in five hours," the former Congress president alleged.
Rahul was referring to Trump's latest claims that he stopped a "nuclear war" between India and Pakistan with trade threats.
"I'm talking to a very terrific man, Modi of India. I said, what's going on with you and Pakistan? Then I spoke to Pakistan about trade. I said, what's going on with you and India? This has been going on for a hell of a long time, sometimes under different names for hundreds of years," the US President said.
He added: "But I said, what's going on? ... I said, no, no, I don't want to make a trade deal with you. You're going to have a nuclear war. You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war. And that was very important to them. I said, call me back tomorrow, but we're not going to do any deals with you, or we're going to put tariffs on you that are so high ... your head's going to spin. You're not going to end up in a war."
He said that the conflict stopped "within about five hours" of his threat. "It was done. Now maybe it starts again, I don't know. I don't think so. But I'll stop it if it does. We can't let these things happen," he further claimed.
India has repeatedly rejected Trump's claims of mediation, saying that both sides halted their military actions in May following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.
Trump, however, has made the claims about a dozen times that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan.
(With inputs from PTI)
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