Did President Donald Trump speak with the Indian government’s consent? asks Congress leader Ashok Gehlot
NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deeply disappointed the nation with his Monday evening speech as he did not come clean on several issues, warranting a convincing response from the head of the government, the Congress has said.
The party reiterated that the sudden announcement of a ceasefire by US President Donald Trump shocked and surprised the country.
“The government has lost the moral courage and authority,” as it has failed to allay doubts of the countrymen on the ceasefire, senior party leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here on Tuesday.
Observing that the US president’s statements were disturbing and dangerous, Gehlot took strong objection to Trump’s suggesting US mediation on the Kashmir issue. The Congress leader wondered whether Trump made those remarks on his own or had the consent of the Indian government. He said the country is dismayed at Trump equating India with Pakistan.
Gehlot observed that the US has always tried to pressure India, pointing out how it threatened India during the 1971 war by deploying the Seventh Naval Fleet in the Bay of Bengal.
Despite this, the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi went ahead and broke Pakistan into two, Gehlot said. Besides, he said, Indira Gandhi forced the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers.
Asserting that the prime minister needs to explain to the nation what actually transpired in the run-up to the announcement of the ceasefire, even when everything was going so well and our defence forces had an upper hand, making Pakistani forces bite the dust. He observed that India lost a golden opportunity to settle the issue of terrorism once and for all.
Gehlot strongly disapproved of Trump’s comments on Monday, ahead of the prime minister’s address to the nation, that the US threatened both countries with stopping trade in case they do not agree to the ceasefire.
He said the prime minister should have responded and clarified the statements made by Trump. “Our government’s silence had further emboldened Trump and he was making statements one after another to the extent of involving himself in the Kashmir issue, which is very dangerous,” he said, asserting that no third-party mediation, not even from the United Nations, should be acceptable.
Gehlot said there was no guarantee that Pakistan would not resort to acts of terror like those in Pahalgam and Pulwama again.
He maintained that if the ceasefire had to be reached, it should have been initiated at the level of the prime minister or the external affairs minister, not by a third party. “There should have been concrete guarantees ensuring that in the future, Pakistan and its army will not allow terrorist incidents against India,” he said.
Referring to the prime minister’s remarks that terror and talks and blood and water can’t flow together, Gehlot said: “The prime minister is known for such statements, but what matters is whether the big things he said last night will be implemented in the future.”
Gehlot reiterated his party’s demand for an all-party meeting and a special session of the Parliament to address all the issues threadbare.
