Congress ups ante after Trump again takes credit for ceasefire

The Congress on Saturday stepped up its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding answers over US President Donald Trump’s continuous claims that he used trade as a war deterrent between India and Pakistan. Trump’s fresh assertion is the 9th time in the last 20 days since he first announced the ceasefire between India and Pakistan via his social media post on May 10. The fresh assault came from MP and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who in a scathing post on X said through the repeated assertions by Trump – the ninth time in 20 days across three countries – the equivalence of India and Pakistan gets reiterated. India has always insisted on “de-hyphenation". The reference is to the term “Indo-Pak", which is how the West saw South Asia in the 90s in an attempt to balance its relationship with both nations. “This is the 9th time in 20 days, across 3 countries and 3 cities. Donaldbhai keeps repeating the same sequence of events of how he got the 4-day India-Pakistan war to stop and the use of trade instrument to stop nuclear escalation. The equivalence of India and Pakistan gets reiterated yet again," Ramesh said. While Trump’s recent claims have not drawn a categorical denial from New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has consistently maintained that the India-Pakistan ceasefire was a bilateral decision, and there have been no trade discussions with the US related to or following ‘Operation Sindoor’. Ramesh also referred to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s recent submission before a court that the threat of tariffs helped the US broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The issue was raised by the Trump administration before the Court of International Trade to defend its sweeping tariffs on countries. However, the trade court blocked Trump’s tariffs from going into effect. A day later, an appeals court temporarily reinstated the tariffs. Referring to it, Ramesh said, “President Trump’s commerce secretary has made exactly the same claims in his submission to the New York-based Court of International Trade. But Donaldbhai’s friend Narendra Modi continues to ignore his claims with absolute silence. Why doesn’t the PM speak up?" “Is President Trump also doing what Modi does all the time and so well (i.e. lying)? Or is he speaking even 50% truth?" he further said. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said Trump’s claim is a “direct affront” to the Shimla Agreement. The principles of the agreement reject international mediation on Kashmir, emphasising on the principle of bilateralism with Pakistan. MP and senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala questioned PM’s silence, while referring to the “documentary evidence” in US Court of International Trade about Washington’s role in ceasefire brokerage between India and Pakistan. He also accused the PM of taking credit for the valour of the country’s armed forces. “…(can’t) go on seeking credit behind the valour of our Armed forces,” he said. Surjewala also demanded clearance from the PM about the “trade deal” offered by the US President to him. “Is trade more important than Nation?” he said. Surjewala also demanded answers from the PM about the terms of ceasefire with Pakistan and about terrorists who are on the wanted list of India. Besides, he also enquired about the closure of terror camps in Pakistan. “Will Pakistan handover Pahalgam terror attack ‘mastermind’ and LeT commander and terrorist, Saifullah Kasuri, who attended an anti-India Rally in Lahore on 29th May, 2025?…Will Pakistan shut down terror camps? Will Pakistan now hand over Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim to India so that we can hang them now? All patriots, all true nationalists and the entire nation demands these answers,” he said.

India