Indian opposition grills Modi over silence on US claims
NEW DELHI: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s harangue about India’s victory over Pakistan dodged the question whether US President Donald Trump did intervene in bringing about the ceasefire, it was stalking him on Tuesday.
The Wire said that Indian opposition parties asked whether the ceasefire was a result of US mediation, marking a clear departure from India’s longstanding policy of ‘no third-party mediation’.
Opposition parties have demanded to know why Modi remained silent on Trump’s claims, whether India has changed its longtime policy of no third-party mediation and if the US president’s claims of trade being used to end the conflict is true.
In a statement, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said Modi’s “much-delayed address to the nation was upstaged by President Trump’s revelations”.
“The prime minister was completely silent on them. Has India agreed to US mediation? Has India agreed to a ‘neutral site’ for a dialogue with Pakistan? The prime minister should immediately have a meeting with leaders of all political parties — something he has studiously avoided in the last 20 days,” he said.
Mr Ramesh said the coming months would ‘demand both painstaking diplomacy and a collective resolve’. “One-liners and dialogue-baazi are poor substitutes,” he said, “.
Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala earlier also sought to know if the ceasefire with Pakistan was on the basis of mediation by the US.
“Isn’t the Modi government aware that the US president, Mr Donald Trump has issued a statement expressing mediation to solve the Kashmir issue? Is the Modi government going to allow a third-party mediation in Kashmir in absolute derogation of India’s stated policy? If not, why has PM Modi not controverted the same?”
Special session of parliament
Also, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary M.A. Baby reiterated the opposition’s call for a special session of parliament and said the ceasefire announcement by Trump before any Indian official could declare it “has raised serious concerns”.
“It is an avowedly accepted policy of our country that we settle our disputes bilaterally, without allowing any third-party intervention. Therefore, this situation requires clear and authoritative clarification from the highest levels,” he wrote.
Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Kumar Jha demanded that Modi government make a statement for the US about not undermining India’s stated policy as well as denying Trump’s claim about the mention of trade being stopped.
“The kind of language he [Trump] chose, hits us Indians. I would request the prime minister that you have the country’s mandate, you should give a stern message to the US.”
All India Majlis-i-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi said, “We have always been opposed to third party intervention since Simla (1972). Why have we now accepted it? I hope the Kashmir issue will not be internationalised, as it is our internal matter. Why are we agreeing to talk on neutral territory? What will be the agenda of these talks?” He also asked if Indian government’s goal was to get a Trump-brokered ceasefire.
Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2025