Supposed trade deal with US has become ordeal: Congress' dig at Modi govt

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday took a swipe at the Modi government after US President Donald Trump repeated his claim that he stopped the India-Pakistan conflict using trade, and said the supposed trade deal that was to happen with America has become an ordeal for India.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There was a time when we were told that India would be hosting the Quad Summit (USA, Japan, Australia, and India) in November 2025. That is now not happening." "There was a time when we were told that India would be amongst the earliest to sign a trade deal with the US. That supposed deal has become an ordeal while exports to the US decline, leading to the loss of livelihoods here," he said.

Meanwhile, President Trump has repeated for the 57th time why and how Operation Sindoor was "suddenly and unexpectedly" halted, with the first announcement of that halt coming from Washington and not New Delhi, the Congress leader said.

Ramesh also shared a video of Trump in which he repeated his claim that he stopped the India-Pakistan military conflict using trade.

"If it wasn't for tariffs and trade, I would not have been able to make the deals. As an example, India does a lot of business with us. They were going to have a nuclear war with Pakistan. The prime minister of Pakistan stood up the other day and said if Donald Trump did not get involved, many millions of people would have been dead right now," Trump said in an interview to a US television network.

"Shot down planes all over the place... that was going to be a bad war and I told both of them that, 'if you guys don't work out a deal fast, you are not going to do any business with the US and they do a lot of business with the US, and they were both great leaders and they worked out a deal and they stopped the war. It would have been a nuclear war," Trump said.

The Congress has been taking swipes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Trump repeating his claim that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan using trade.

"The self-styled but now thoroughly shrunken and deeply exposed 56-inch chest is still quiet," the opposition party said last week.

In his address to world leaders at the UN in September, Trump repeated his claim about stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan.

India has maintained that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two militaries.