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Donald Trump repeats ‘five jets’ during India-Pakistan conflict claim, Congress reacts
Donald Trump claims credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire, while Jairam Ramesh demands a parliamentary debate on Pahalgam terror attack.
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for bringing about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Taking a dig at Narendra Modi, the Congress on Wednesday said while Donald Trump has reached the quarter-century mark on his claims – reiterating them 25 times in the last 73 days, the prime minister is “totally quiet, finding time only to travel abroad and to destabilise democratic institutions at home”.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh attacked the Centre for not providing a definite date for discussing the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor that followed.
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"As the Modi government continues in its refusal to give firm dates for a debate on Pahalgam-Sindoor in Parliament and as the Modi government 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 general secretary in-charge of communications posted on X.
On Tuesday, Trump repeated his claims of “stopping the war between India and Pakistan” in the name of trade deals.
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"We have stopped wars between India and Pakistan. They were probably going to end up in a nuclear war. They shot down five planes in the last attack. It was back and forth, back and forth. I called them and I said no more trade if you do this. They are both powerful nuclear nations. Who knows where that would have ended up, and I stopped it," Trump said.
The opposition leaders have been demanding that the Prime Minister address both houses and the nation on crucial issues, including the Pahalgam terror attack and the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being carried out by the Election Commission in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
Trump claimed the US took out Iran's entire nuclear capability and also stopped the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia.
Trump, who has repeatedly said that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan through trade, last Friday said for the first time that five jets were shot down during the fighting.
"You had India, Pakistan, that was going in fact, planes were being shot out of the air, five, five, four or five. But I think five jets were shot down actually, that was getting worse and worse, wasn't it? That was looking like it was going to go, these are two serious nuclear countries and they were hitting each other," the US president had said at the White House in his remarks made during a dinner that he hosted for the Republican senators.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire after a long night of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim on several occasions that he helped settle the tensions between India and Pakistan.
India, however, has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Director Generals of Military Operation (DGsMO) of the two militaries.
In a nearly 35-minute phone call with Trump last month, Modi firmly stated that India does not and will "never accept" mediation and that the discussions between Indian and Pakistani militaries on cessation of military actions were initiated at Islamabad's request.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
