14 May 2025 : US President Donald Trump‘s repeated claims about brokering a ceasefire understanding between India and Pakistan drew a sharp reaction from the Congress that accused the Republican leader of not only hyphenating the two countries but also equating Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart, Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharing a clip of Trump’s latest comment about India-Pakistan’s ceasefire understanding from an event in Saudi Arabia, the Congress’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, said, “Trump does it again.”
“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.
Khera, who is also a Congress spokesperson, asked if the Prime Minister’s Office would accept such a comparison.
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 poked fun at the government. “This narrative wasn’t part of the syllabus,” he said.
What did Trump say in Saudi Arabia?
Trump, who is on a 4-day tour of the Middle East, once again claimed on Tuesday that 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 in Saudi Arabia.
India rejects Trump’s claim
The Indian government on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that he helped broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in exchange for trade concessions, stating unequivocally that the “issue of trade did not come up” in any discussions between the two nations during the recent military escalation.
Addressing speculation about the role played by the US and other countries in the recent crisis, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the “specific date, time and wording of the understanding” to halt firing and military actions was worked out between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan during their phone call that began at 3.35 pm on May 10.
Summary:
Congress slammed Donald Trump for equating PM Modi with Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif, calling the comparison unacceptable and questioning the government’s silence.