The Congress party on Tuesday demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after former US President Donald Trump once again claimed credit for halting a potential nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, said that Trump has made this assertion at least “the 21st time in the last 59 days”.
In a post on X, Ramesh quoted Trump’s repeated claims about brokering a ceasefire during what he described as a four-day war in May.
"For at least the 21st time in the last 59 days, President Trump has said that he — 1. Stopped the four-day India-Pakistan war in May. 2. The war was about to escalate into a nuclear conflict. 3. India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire because the carrot-and-stick of trade with the US was used by him. In other words, his message was: stop the war at once or face the real prospects of losing American markets (and presumably investment),” Ramesh wrote.
He added, “President Trump has trumpeted all this just as he was also announcing that a US trade deal with India and Pakistan was about to be declared very soon.”
Ramesh asked: “When will PM Narendra Modi – once described by his senior colleague Ghanshyam Tiwari as the BJP’s ‘trump card’ – break his silence on this issue?”
Ramesh reposted a video of Trump’s recent remarks, where the former US President reiterated his earlier claims: "...We stopped a lot of fights, very, very big one was India and Pakistan. We stopped that over trade. We are dealing with India and Pakistan. We said that we are not going to be dealing with you at all if you are gonna fight. They were maybe at a nuclear stage...Stopping that was really important..."
Speaking on Monday, Trump told a gathering, “We’re close to making a deal with India,” while listing recent trade negotiations with other countries including the UK and China.
"Now, we've made a deal with the United Kingdom, we've made a deal with China. We're close to making a deal with India," he said. "Others we met with and we don't think we're going to be able to make a deal, so we just send them a letter. If you want to play ball, this is what you have to pay."
Since May 10, Trump has frequently credited himself for mediating peace between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. The Indian military had launched the operation on May 7, targeting terror camps in Pakistan-controlled territory in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack.
Four days of heavy cross-border hostilities continued till an informal understanding to cease military action was reached on May 10. Indian officials have maintained that Pakistan called for an end to the clashes after suffering significant losses from India’s fierce counter-attack.
