Opp Questions Modi’s Silence on US Mediation Claims, Trade Threats in India-Pak Ceasefire

New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first address to the nation after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan made no mention of such mediation, opposition parties have questioned his silence on Trump's claims. Opposition parties have asked whether the ceasefire was a result of US mediation, marking a clear departure from India’s longstanding policy of no third party mediation following the Simla Agreement.

On Monday (May 12), Modi said that India had inflicted so much damage on Pakistan’s air bases and military establishments that its DGMO, on the afternoon of May 10, “desperately” called his Indian counterpart to ensure the Indian military would not take further action.

In a departure from what Trump and US secretary of state Marco Rubio had said – that talks would take place between India and Pakistan “at a neutral location” following the ceasefire announcement – Modi said that no “nuclear blackmail will be tolerated anymore” and reiterated his government’s stated policy that “talks and terror cannot go hand in hand”.

Also on Monday, Trump in a statement claimed that the threat of cutting off trade forced India and Pakistan to stop their fighting, asserting that his administration had stopped a “nuclear conflict” between the two neighbours. While there was no official government response, official sources denied the claim.

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 settling issues bilaterally, and whether the US president’s claims of trade being used to end the conflict was true.

In a statement Congress MP and the party’s general secretary media and communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that the prime minister’s “much delayed address to the nation was completely 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? Will India now give in on US demands for opening Indian markets in autos, agriculture, and other areas? 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.

Ramesh said that the coming months will “demand both painstaking diplomacy and a collective resolve.”

“One-liners and dialogue-baazi are poor substitutes,” he said, adding that the prime minister has “still much to answer for.”

Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala in a statement earlier on Monday also sought to know whether 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?"

At a White House event on Monday, Trump said that he had brokered the ceasefire agreement by "using trade" and saying that if India and Pakistan continue the military standoff, then the US will stop trade with the two countries.

“I said, come on, we’re gonna do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not gonna do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you, and all of a sudden, they said, I think we’re gonna stop,” said Trump.

In a letter to Modi, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary M.A. Baby reiterated the opposition’s call for a special session of parliament and said that the ceasefire announcement which was first made by Trump on Saturday evening and not by any Indian official “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 of our government," he said in his letter.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Kumar Jha said that a statement should be given by the prime minister as well as the highest level of government to the US about not undermining India’s stated policy and a denial should be issued about no mention of trade being stopped as claimed by Trump.

"When the official announcement of a ceasefire was to be made, the US president's statement came first. Then again Trump said that he used trade to make both India and Pakistan agree to a ceasefire. The kind of language he chose, hits us Indians. There is information being put out through sources in the form of a denial. Who are sources? I would request the prime minister that you have the country's mandate, you should give a stern message to the US. This message needs to go from the top level because this undermines our stated position,” he said.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi following the ceasefire announcement on Saturday said that India had always been opposed to third party intervention since the Simla agreement in 1972.

“I wish our Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ceasefire rather than the president of a foreign country. 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,” he said.

“Why are we agreeing to talk on neutral territory? What will be the agenda of these talks? Does the United States guarantee that Pakistan will not use its territory for terrorism? Have we achieved our aim of deterring Pakistan from carrying out future terror attacks? Was our goal to get a Trump-brokered ceasefire or was it to bring Pakistan to such a position that it would not even dream of another terror attack?”

While Modi in his address on Monday said that no “nuclear blackmail will be tolerated anymore” and reiterated his government’s stated policy that “talks and terror cannot go hand in hand”, he did not mention both Trump and Rubio’s claims of talks between the two countries at a neutral site.

Former Delhi chief minister Aatishi said that while Modi had claimed that Pakistan had pleaded for a ceasefire, why was the ceasefire then not announced by India. “If Pakistan pleaded for mercy, why wasn’t the ceasefire announced by India or its Prime Minister?" she asked.

“Why isn't Pakistan giving this in writing in front of the world that we pleaded to India for mercy? Prime minister, the whole country wants to know why isn't Pakistan stating this in front of the world. Did Pakistan at least handover the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack to India? The only thing that has come forward is that US President Trump has brokered this ceasefire deal and threatened to stop trade. The whole country wants to know, did you agree to the ceasefire because the US threatened to end trade?”

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