Major jolt to Indian diplomacy: Cong slams BJP over Trump-Modi call, Munir’s lunch with US Prez

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“Citing Pakistan army chief Asim Munir’s closed-door lunch meeting with Trump, India has received a triple jolt in foreign policy and diplomacy,” said Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, leading the Congress’s charge.

He demanded that the Prime Minister summon a Parliament session and detail his conversation with Trump, during which Modi made it clear to the US President that at no point during Operation Sindoor, trade or mediation were discussed with America.

“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 was a readout. President Trump has also put out a statement from the White House. There is difference between the two statements. Normally, these statements are different because they appeal to different audiences,” Ramesh added.

“Why can’t the Prime Minister call an all-party meeting and say the same thing in Parliament? Take the opposition leaders into confidence and say the same thing which was put out by the Foreign Secretary on Wednesday,” said the Congress leader.

Following Modi’s 35-minute phone call with Trump, which came at the US President's request, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri issued a readout of the conversation. The Trump administration, however, has not issued such a statement yet.

During the talks, Modi informed Trump that the ceasefire on May 10 was directly negotiated with Pakistan, countering the US President’s often repeated claim that he had used “trade” to arrive at the understanding.

Ramesh also questioned the Prime Minister’s silence over Trump inviting Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir for a one-on-one lunch at the White House.

“Is this why President Trump abandoned the G7 Summit a day early, denying Narendra Modi a huge hug,” he asked.

The Congress leader further 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 and absolutely unacceptable remarks that he made, which gave oxygen to the Pahalgam terrorists,” he said.

Days before the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 dead, Munir provoked India by raking up the two-nation theory - the ideological basis for Pakistan’s creation. He had also called the Kashmir issue Pakistan’s “jugular vein".

Later, the saffron party hit back at the Congress, with its IT cell chief Amit Malviya rebutting Ramesh’s claims on a US readout of Modi-Trump talks, calling him a “congenital liar”.

“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 said in a post on X.

“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,” he further said.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also criticised the Congress, calling it the “biggest supplier, spreader and cultivator” of fake news.

“The Congress relishes in descending into ‘Bharat virodh’ (opposing India) just because it does ‘BJP virodh’ (opposes the BJP)... “Insulting the Army and praising Pakistan” seems to have become the only identity of the Congress,” Poonawalla added.