New Delhi, May 13 (PTI) The Congress on Tuesday asked if the Narendra Modi government would undertake an exercise on the Pahalgam terror attack similar to the one the Vajpayee government undertook by setting up a review committee immediately after the Kargil War.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also took a swipe at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, saying the normally “unquiet” minister’s silence on what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on “US mediation” and on a “neutral site” for India-Pakistan talks was “very deafening”.
“The Indian who has spent the maximum time with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is our dapper external affairs minister. Much was made in the media over the fact that he was the very first to meet Mr Rubio on Jan 21, 2025, — just a day after President Trump’s inauguration,” Ramesh said on X.
“The normally unquiet minister’s silence on what Mr Rubio has said on US mediation and on a ‘neutral site’ for India-Pakistan talks is very deafening,” he said.
Earlier, Ramesh said the party’s repeated demands for a Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired all-party meeting and a special session of Parliament assumed even greater urgency and importance in light of the statements from Washington DC.
“Three days after the Kargil War ended, the Vajpayee government set up the Kargil Review Committee on July 29, 1999. Its report was tabled in Parliament on February 23, 2000, although sections of it have remained classified — as indeed they must,” he said.
The committee was chaired by India’s strategic affairs guru K Subrahmanyam, whose son is now India’s external affairs minister, he said.
“Will the Modi government now conduct a similar exercise on Pahalgam, notwithstanding the NIA (National Investigation Agency) probe?” Ramesh asked.
“Given the statements from Washington DC, the INC’s (Indian National Congress) repeated demands for an all-party meeting TO BE CHAIRED BY THE PM himself and for a special session of Parliament — which is now scheduled to meet at least two and a half months from now – assume even greater urgency and importance,” he said.
Ramesh’s remarks came a day after Trump reiterated his claim that his administration stopped a “nuclear conflict” between India and Pakistan, telling the south Asian neighbours that America would do a “lot of trade” with them if they ended hostilities.
“On Saturday (May 10), my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons,” Trump said at the start of a press conference in the White House on Monday.
He started the briefing by describing the events that took place over the previous few days in the Indian subcontinent.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Indian government sources in New Delhi have been maintaining that the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect. They said no third party was involved.
Trump said on Monday that India and Pakistan were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop.
“I’m very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases, having these they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation,” he said.
The US president said he told India and Pakistan that America would do “a lot of trade” with them if they stopped the conflict.
“And we helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade'”.
Trump added, “People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden they (India and Pakistan) said ‘I think we’re going to stop’.” “And they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons but trade is a big one. We’re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We’re going to do a lot of trade with India. We’re negotiating with India right now. We’re going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict,” Trump said.
The decision by India and Pakistan to halt military hostilities was first made public by Trump in a social media post while claiming that the talks between the two sides were mediated by the US. PTI ASK ASK SZM SZM
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