Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. -- Screengrab: Rahul Gandhi's Youtube channel
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump and Indian Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi are taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to task for their own reasons.
Trump is doing it for Modi’s refusal to acknowledge his role in ending the Pakistan-India conflict in May, while Gandhi heads an opposition that has been down for too long.
US President Donald Trump claimed he used trade pressure to stop a May Pakistan-India clash, saying “seven brand new” planes were shot down.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to publicly deny Trump’s account and “find the courage” to respond.
‘Seven brand new planes’
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “seven brand new, beautiful planes were shot down” during the Pakistan-India conflict earlier this year.
While referring to the aerial encounters between the two countries, the US president said the two countries were “going at it” in May, during which “seven planes were shot down.”
“Seven brand new, beautiful planes were shot down,” Trump said in his speech, available on White House YouTube channel, to business leaders in Japan during a dinner.
India continues to deny that any of its aircraft were lost and rejects Trump’s claim regarding the ceasefire.
‘Great service to the world’
The US president said he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “We're not going to do any trade if you're going to be fighting.”
The same message was also sent to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif — whom he termed “a very nice man, a very good man” — and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
“And within about 24 hours, that was the end of that,” Trump said. “It was amazing, actually.”
“A lot of the wars that I stopped were because of tariffs,” he said, adding that he was able to do a “great service to the world […] because of tariffs, because of trade.”
'Don’t be scared Modi ji’
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, in a post on X on Wednesday, while hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said: “Trump is insulting Modi in country after country. Latest is South Korea. 1. Repeated that he used trade to frighten Modi into stopping Operation Sindoor. 2. Said 7 planes were shot down.”
“Don’t be scared Modi ji, find the courage to respond,” the opposition leader added, while throwing down the gauntlet.
This is not the first time; the Indian opposition leader has challenged PM Modi on the issue.
Back on July 29 during a debate in the Indian Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, in his speech available on his Youtube channel, said: “Donald Trump has said 29 times, 29 times he said he got the ceasefire done, if he is lying than the prime minister should say it here, if he has the courage should say it here that he is lying.”
“If he has the courage, if he has the courage, if he has the courage, if he has the courage of Indira Gandhi, let him say here, that ‘Donald Trump you are a liar, you did not make a ceasefire, and that we did not lose any planes’, let him say if he has the courage.”
“If he has even 50% of the courage of Indira Gandhi than say it here, if he has the courage, if he really has the courage, than this evening the prime minister should say it here Donald Trump is a liar, don’t have President Trump tell you that I have stopped the war 29 times, have the courage to tell him that no, to hell with you, you cannot stop any war, we are going to fight,” Gandhi challenged Modi to loud applause from the opposition benches.
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