Almost every morning, the Congress leader Jairam Ramesh fires off a post on his X (Twitter before Elon Musk took over) handle, targeting the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

And Donald Trump, with his repeated assertions on bringing about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, keeps providing ammunition for the Opposition to target Modi, whom the US President calls a friend and fantastic leader.

At a White House reception for US Congress members on Tuesday, Trump once again reiterated that it was his intervention that stopped a full-scale conflict between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

“We stopped wars between India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda,” he said. On the India-Pakistan standoff, he added, “They shot down five planes and it was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I called them and said, ‘Listen, no more trade. If you do this, you're not going to be good… They're both powerful nuclear nations and that would have happened, and who knows where that would have ended up. And I stopped it’.”

Just how many times has Trump claimed credit for stopping the spiralling conflict between India and Pakistan? Ask Jairam Ramesh.

“As the Modi Govt continues in its refusal to give firm dates for a debate on Pahalgam-Sindoor in Parliament and as the Modi Govt persists in its refusal to commit to a reply by the PM in the debate, President Trump reaches the silver jubilee, the quarter century mark on his claims. He has trumpeted 25 times in the last 73 days but the Prime Minister of India is totally quiet — finding time only to travel abroad and to destabilise democratic institutions at home,” the Congress leader wrote on Wednesday morning.

For the Opposition, Trump’s persistent claims have become a recurring opportunity to call out what they allege is Modi’s deliberate avoidance of accountability. The party has repeatedly criticised the Prime Minister’s continued silence, especially in light of sensitive issues like terrorism and cross-border conflict.

And right now, the Opposition is trying to pin down the Modi government over losses incurred in the conflict with Pakistan.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had only days ago picked up on Trump’s “five jets shot down” claim, asking Prime Minister Modi about the “truth”.

The government has consistently denied there was any third-party mediation.

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri had dismissed Trump’s mediation claims in a video message from the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, stating that during a 35-minute phone call between Modi and Trump, “at no point” was any trade deal or mediation proposal discussed.

“India does not and will never accept mediation,” Misri asserted, clarifying that the ceasefire discussion happened through direct military channels between the two nations.

Still, for the Congress, the political opportunity presented by Trump’s unverified claims has been too tempting to ignore. In the absence of a rebuttal from the Prime Minister, every new Trump statement reinforces the opposition’s portrayal of a government unwilling to come clean on issues of national security.