New Delhi: An ugly spat broke out between the BJP and the Congress after it came to be known that Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir has a luncheon appointment with US president Donald Trump at the cabinet room of the White House at 1 pm (10.30 pm IST) on Wednesday.
The Congress first launched a tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after reports surfaced of Munir’s invitation to the US Army’s 250th Anniversary Parade in Washington on Saturday.
The Congress had to quieten down after the White House clarified that Munir had not been invited to the Parade. The party got another chance though, after it was confirmed that Trump, who left the G7 Summit midway, would meet the Pakistan Army chief. Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh also brought up the issue of Modi’s 35-minute telephonic conversation with Trump from Canada.
“For 37 days, the PM did not say anything. Today, we are told that he had a 35-minute call with President Trump, and there is a readout… President Trump has also put out a statement from the White House. There is a difference between the two statements. Normally, these statements are different because they appeal to different audiences,” Ramesh said.
“Why can’t the Prime Minister call an all-party meeting? Say the same thing in Parliament. Take the opposition leaders into confidence and say the same thing which has been put out today by the foreign secretary,” the Congress leader said.
During the call, Modi told Trump that Operation Sindoor is still on and India will respond with shells if Pakistan fires bullets at it. The Prime Minister also said that the US had nothing to do with the cessation of operations by India. Modi also told Trump that India would not consider a trade deal at a time when it is countering terrorism. All of this was revealed in a statement by Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri. It was also said that Modi declined an invitation from Trump to visit Washington on his way back from the G7 Summit in Canada.
Ramesh took up the issue of Munir’s luncheon appointment with Trump and posted: “Is this why President Trump abandoned the G7 Summit a day early, denying Narendra Modi a huge hug?” He called it an “insult” to India and a setback for Indian diplomacy.
“He (Modi) should have made the US President aware of the direct link between Asim Munir’s inflammatory, incendiary, provocative, absolutely unacceptable remarks that he made, which gave oxygen to the Pahalgam terrorists,” Ramesh added.
The BJP hit back, with IT Cell chief Amit Malviya rebutting Ramesh’s claims on a US readout of Modi-Trump talks, calling him a “congenital liar – much like Rahul Gandhi”.
“He is now peddling yet another falsehood, claiming that Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s statement doesn’t match the US readout… But here is the catch: the readout he is citing is from January 2025! And there is no official US release yet on the latest call,” Malviya tweeted.
“The Congress and its troll army simply can’t digest the fact that Prime Minister Modi told President Trump in clear terms – India neither needs nor accepts any third-party mediation,” Malviya said.
Former Union minister and Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Congress’s narrative about how the government failed was only their “wishful thinking”.
“They live in a fantasy land, they live in a metaverse where Rahul Gandhi is a very popular leader and is a visionary and India is not doing well. They are living in this delusion. There are a few people living in that metaverse – Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka, Jairam Ramesh,” Chandrasekhar told India Today.
