New Delhi, May 14: With US President Donald Trump reiterating his claims about having “successfully brokered” a “ceasefire” between India and Pakistan, the Congress on Tuesday said he was not only hyphenating the two countries but also comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif.
The Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera shared a clip of Trump’s latest comments during an event in Saudi Arabia.
“US president says it again: ‘I used trade to make a deal between them, and they agreed’. Not only is Donald Trump hyphenating India with Pakistan, he is comparing Prime Minister Modi with Shehbaz Sharif,” he said in the caption.
He asked if such a comparison was acceptable to the PMO.
Professionals’ Congress and Data Analytics chairman Praveen Chakravarty took a swipe at the government, saying, “‘Pakistan’s prime minister and India’s prime minister are equal. Pakistan and India are equal powers’. Who is saying this? Prime Minister Modi’s ‘good friend’ President Trump.”
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also shared Trump’s remarks in Saudi Arabia on X and took a dig at the government.
“This narrative wasn’t part of the syllabus,” he said.
Trump once again claimed his administration “successfully brokered a historic ceasefire” to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan.
“As I said in my inaugural address, my greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and to be a unifier. I don’t like war. We have the greatest military, by the way, in the history of the world,” Trump said while speaking at a Saudi-US investment forum in the Saudi capital.
“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan,” claimed Trump, who is in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of his four-day trip to the Gulf region.
“And I used trade to a large extent to do it. And I said, ‘Fellows, come on. Let’s make a deal. Let’s do some trading’,” Trump said to applause from the high-level audience, which included billionaire Elon Musk.
“‘Let’s not trade nuclear missiles. Let’s trade the things that you make so beautifully.’ And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders. And it all stopped. Hopefully, it’ll remain that way, but it all stopped,” Trump said.
A day earlier, Trump had claimed that his administration stopped a “nuclear conflict” between India and Pakistan, telling the south Asian neighbours that America would do a “lot of trade” with them if they ended hostilities.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Indian government sources in New Delhi have maintained the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea and that no third party was involved.
Trump had announced India and Pakistan agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” and claimed that it happened after a long night of talks “mediated by the United States”.
Later, in a post on Truth Social, he offered to work with India and Pakistan for a “solution” on Kashmir while crediting Washington for helping the two nations arrive at the “historic and heroic decision” of stopping the conflict.
India maintains the Kashmir issue to be a bilateral matter and that there is no space for any third party.
It asserts that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh are and will always be integral and inalienable parts of India. (PTI)
