Munir-Trump lunch huge setback, PM must take nation into confidence on talks with Trump: Cong

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately chair an all-party meeting upon his return from his three-nation tour to brief leaders on what he has told US President Donald Trump in a telephonic conversation and take the nation into confidence.

The opposition party also said Prime Minister Modi must publicly reject President Trump's claims of having "stopped a war" between India and Pakistan if they are incorrect.

Also read: Explained: Is the US setting a trap for Pakistan amid Iran standoff?

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh termed Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir's scheduled lunch with Trump a "huge setback", and said the PM should have conveyed India's displeasure on it to the US president during their telephonic conversation.

Ramesh asserted that if Indira Gandhi had been the prime minister, she would definitely have conveyed her displeasure to whoever the US president would have been.

Speaking to PTI, Ramesh also urged the government to form a "Pahalgam Review Committee" on the lines of the Kargil Review Committee that was set up three days after the Kargil war and was chaired by K Subrahmanyam, the late father of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

He said the prime minister must rebut in Parliament Trump's claims of using trade as an instrument for mediating a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

The Congress leader said the Modi government's diplomacy must depend less on optics and more on substance.

Ramesh's remarks came after Modi spoke with Trump and set the record straight that India had paused strikes on Pakistan during Operation Sindoor following a request from Islamabad and not due to mediation or a trade deal offer by the US.

In his 35-minute phone call with Trump on Tuesday, Modi briefed the US President on Operation Sindoor and made it clear that it has never accepted any third-party mediation and will never accept it in the future, according to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

Hours after his phone conversation with Modi, Trump repeated his claim that he stopped a war between India and Pakistan.

Sharing the video of Trump's remarks, Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said one has to feel a bit sorry for the foreign secretary, who has been "left to clean up after a government that can't keep its own narrative intact".

"Just this morning, he insisted that Prime Minister Modi told President Trump that the May ceasefire between India and Pakistan was achieved solely through military-to-military dialogue, with no American involvement. But just hours later, Trump himself blew that claim to bits, boasting once again that he brokered the ceasefire between two nuclear powers by dangling trade as leverage. So much for diplomatic coherence," Khera said on X.

Trump is not using a senior official to claim that he mediated between India and Pakistan, and he has been saying it himself, the Congress leader said.

"Public claims made by President Trump simply cannot be countered by proxy. Prime Minister Modi must publicly reject President Trump's claims - if they are incorrect," Khera said.

Earlier, on Trump's scheduled lunch with Munir, Ramesh said, "This is a triple jhatka for Indian diplomacy. Today, Field Marshal Munir, whose incendiary, inflammatory, provocative and unacceptable remarks formed the background to the Pahalgam terror attack, is set to have lunch with President Trump. The same military man who is not the head of government is being invited for a special one-on-one lunch with President Trump. This is a huge setback."

"The second huge setback came when US General Michael Kurilla, the US Central Command chief, declared Pakistan to be a 'phenomenal partner' in counter-terror operations.

"Same Pakistan that gave sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden who was killed on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad. How does Pakistan become a phenomenal partner? Pakistan is a phenomenal perpetrator. To call a perpetrator partner is a setback for Indian diplomacy," Ramesh told PTI.

He said the third setback was President Trump claiming credit 14 times for pausing Operation Sindoor and having brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

"He (Trump) says he used trade as an instrument, equating India and Pakistan. He said this 14 times and the PM has not said anything since May 10. So this is a triple setback," the Congress leader said.

On the Modi-Trump telephonic conversation, Ramesh said the PM is said to have told Trump that trade was not discussed in relation to Operation Sindoor and there is no room for mediation.

"Why doesn't he say this to the all-party meeting? That is why we have been demanding a special Parliament session so that the PM takes the nation into confidence and says all the things he has supposed to have told President Trump," Ramesh said.

"When he comes back, let him immediately call an all-party meeting and say this is what my 35-minute conversation with President Trump was all about," he said.

It has taken 37 days for the PM to break his silence on claims made by Trump 14 times, Ramesh said, reiterating that Modi must take the nation into confidence.

"I feel that Asim Munir's lunch and Kurilla's statements are huge setbacks for the PM's diplomacy. Diplomacy has been high on optics under the Modi government. These are unexpected setbacks. We must depend less on optics and more on substance," Ramesh said.

"There is no substitute for taking the nation into confidence and building a collective will and resolve," he said.

Ramesh alleged that Modi was "divider-in-chief" and asked why he does not take opposition leaders into confidence.

The Congress leader also said that during his conversation with Trump, Modi should have conveyed India's displeasure over the scheduled lunch with Munir.

"I would have expected that India would have conveyed its extreme displeasure - If Indira Gandhi would have been the PM, she definitely would have conveyed her displeasure to whoever the US President would be, whether (Richard) Nixon or (Ronald) Reagan," Ramesh said.

Earlier, in a post on X, Ramesh said, "Indian diplomacy is being shattered and the PM is totally silent. And tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of his (in) famous clean chit to China."