There wasn't any threat to use trade to promote peace: Tharoor on Trump's India-Pak claims

New Delhi, Dec 15 (PTI) In the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he used trade to stop the India-Pakistan military conflict in May, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday cited his conversations with various echelons of the government to state that neither was there any threat to use trade to promote peace nor was any effort made to tell India “to do this or do that”.

Tharoor, at a talk organised by the NGO CUTS International, reiterated his stance on Trump's claims on Operation Sindoor, which have been at variance with the official position of the Congress.

Asked about Trump's claims and the argument that he wants a diplomatic acknowledgement from India on his role, Tharoor said, “I was asked about it when I led a multi-party delegation to Washington. I said India never needed persuading… We signalled from the very first strike on the night of May 6-7 that we were not interested in a protracted conflict with Pakistan.

“All we were doing was striking in a very precise, targeted way – terror sites. We had been careful enough to avoid striking Pakistani civilian sites, government sites and even military installations, and therefore had Pakistan chosen not to retaliate, we were done and dusted." Now that Pakistan retaliated, “we have to reply but the moment they will stop, we will stop”, he said, talking of India’s stance during the military conflict.

“That was there in the government's signalling on each of the four days of the conflict. So, clearly India did not need persuading,” Tharoor said.

The moment Pakistan came and said “let us call it off, we called it off”, he pointed out.

“On the other hand I said – and here I was going out on a limb because I did not have any sort of a briefing from the government on this – we do not know what happened between Washington and Islamabad, so if Mr Trump played a significant role in getting the Pakistanis to come and sue for peace, then surely as a peace-loving nation we will be grateful,” the Congress leader said.

“That answer went over happily in Washington but somehow we haven't found it possible to say that in Delhi. Don't forget that part of this happened during a Parliament debate when the government's desire to look and sound tough naturally became a consideration as well,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

“As I understood from all my conversations with various echelons of the government, there was never any direct conversation with Mr Trump nor was there any threat to use trade to promote peace, nor was there any effort made to sort of tell India 'we want you to do this or do that',” Tharoor said.

All of this appears to be coming out from somewhere else and “we don't know where”, he added.

But it certainly does not correspond to the records or the experience or the logs maintained by the Indian government at all serious levels, he said.

Tharoor, however, clarified that he is not in the Indian government, and therefore, he cannot claim to have access to any classified information.

“But my impression is that we were, therefore, taken aback by a claim that we did not have any basis for verifying,” he added.

The Congress has been taking swipes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the repeated claims by the US that President Trump brokered peace between India and Pakistan using trade and tariffs.

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire after a long night of talks mediated by Washington, the US president has repeated his claim more than 60 times that he helped settle the tensions between the two neighbours.

New Delhi has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. PTI ASK ARI