Rahul Gandhi, Congress Attack Modi for “Surrendering” to Trump, Dropped from G7 Summit
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 3: In a fresh attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Mr Modi “Surrendered” to the “orders” of the US president Donald Trump in agreeing to “ceasefire” during “Operation Sindoor” last month, while the Congress said India not getting an invite for the G7 summit in Canada was yet another diplomatic failure of the Modi government.
Taking a sarcastic swipe at the Prime Minister. Mr Gandhi said Mr Modi “surrendered” during last month’s military conflict with Pakistan – Operation Sindoor – after United States President’s “order” to do so.
At an event in Bhopal, Mr Gandhi declared, “A call came from (Donald) Trump and Narendraji immediately surrendered… history is witness to this. This is the character of the BJP and RSS (referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ruling party’s ideological mentor).” “Narendraji followed Trump saying ‘Narender, surrender’ by saying ‘yes, sir’,” Mr Gandhi jibed.
He then referred to the 1971 India-Pakistan war, which resulted in Bangladesh’s liberation and was fought when the Congress was in power, and said, “India broke Pakistan in 1971 despite threat of America. Lions and lionesses of Congress fight against superpowers and never bow down.” “I am well aware of the BJP and RSS people. Apply a little pressure… and they run away in fear.”
The BJP hit back swiftly; party spokesperson Tuhin Sinha said the remark showed Mr Gandhi “represents Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)” and was “misleading” the people.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed his administration played a key role in brokering a cessation of hostilities between India and Pak in May. Despite India firmly saying Trump had played no such role, the US President repeatedly insisted that he “sure as hell” helped to broker peace between the two countries and had even threatened to stop trade with both India and Pakistan to make the two nations agree to the ceasefire. The Trump administration had even repeated the claim in the US court.
India had warned Pak against retaliating to those strikes, making it clear that only terrorist camps and bases would be targeted. Pak, however, chose to ignore the warning and countered by firing armed drones and missiles at military and civilian centres in western India.
The missiles and drones were disabled by India’s air defence system, and India launched counter-strikes of its own. Missiles and air strikes pounded both sides of the border for the next four days, till May 10, when Trump claimed he had negotiated a ceasefire. Hours later India confirmed the ceasefire, but made it clear that it was Pakistan that had reached out to end hostilities and that there had been no pressure from the US, whether diplomatic or to do with ongoing talks over a trade deal with that country.
The US, however, repeated its claims ignoring India’s denial nor is there any report of India having taken up the matter at the diplomatic level to challenge the President’s claims.
In a separate development, the Congress claimed that India not being invited to the G7 meeting in Canada was “yet another big diplomatic bungle” after the blunder of allowing the U.S. to “mediate” between India and Pakistan. In a social media post on X, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said the G7 Summit was taking place in Alberta, Canada, from June 15 in which the Presidents of the U.S. and France, the Prime Ministers of the U.K., Japan, Italy and Canada and the Chancellor of Germany are participating. The Presidents of Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Australia have also been invited to the summit, he added.
“Before 2014, G7 was actually G8 for many years and had included Russia. Dr Manmohan Singh would be invited for G8 Summits where his voice would be heard. It was at one such summit in Germany in June 2007 where the famous Singh-Merkel formula for climate change negotiations had been unveiled,” Mr Ramesh said in a post.
He added that the tradition of inviting Indian Prime Ministers continued after 2014. “But now, for the first time in 6 years, ‘Vishwaguru’ will not be in attendance at the Canada summit. Whatever spin may be given, the fact remains that this is yet another big diplomatic bungle – after the blunder of allowing the US to overturn decades of Indian foreign policy by mediating between India and Pakistan and allowing American authorities to call for continued talks at a ‘neutral site’,” the Congress leader noted.
So far, Canada is yet to send an invitation to New Delhi for the summit, but sources claimed Mr Modi, in any case, would have skipped as a lot of groundwork was required to repair the relations between the two countries. The India-Canada relations had hit rock bottom following the then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in 2023 of a potential Indian link to the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
