Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor strongly criticised President Donald Trump’s remarks on the ongoing India-Pakistan tensions and accused him of undermining India’s national interest and echoing global narratives favourable to Pakistan.
Reacting to Trump’s recent remarks on the Kashmir issue, Tharoor said the comments were “deeply disappointing for India” and warned that they risk reversing hard-earned diplomatic ground secured over decades.
In a sharply worded statement on social media, Tharoor said Trump’s comments were deeply disappointing for India on four important counts and undermined India’s long-standing position on cross-border terrorism and Kashmir.
Here’s Tharoor’s 4-point analysis of Donald Trump’s Kashmir remark and approach towards Pakistan.
1- False equivalence between the victim and the perpetrator
The Congress leader argued that Trump’s remarks imply a false equivalence between India and Pakistan, a position that disregards Pakistan’s “well-documented links” to cross-border terrorism and overlooks the United States’ historical stance condemning those connections.
“First, it implies a false equivalence between the victim and the perpetrator, and seemingly overlooks the US’ own past unwavering stance against Pakistan’s well-documented links to cross-border terrorism,” he said.
2- Unwarranted negotiation legitimacy to Pakistan
The senior Congress leader also said that Trump, by offering a negotiating framework, granted Pakistan the legitimacy that it has not earned. “India will never negotiate with a terrorist gun pointed at its head,” he wrote.
3- Internationalising the Kashmir issue
On Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and Pakistan for a Kashmir solution, Tharoor warned that Trump’s offer to intervene facilitates the agenda of terrorist groups who seek to internationalise the Kashmir issue.
“India has never requested, nor is likely to seek, any foreign country’s mediation over its problems with Pakistan,” he wrote on X.
4- Re-hyphenating India and Pakistan
Trump’s remarks “re-hyphenate” India and Pakistan in the global imagination, said Tharoor. For decades now, world leaders have been encouraged not to club their visits to India with visits to Pakistan, and starting with President Clinton in 2000, no US President has done so. This was a major backwards step, according to Tharoor.
What did Trump say on the Kashmir issue?
Tharoor’s remark came just days after US President Donald Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, even though India has long maintained that Kashmir is a bilateral issue and does not welcome third-party intervention on the matter.
On Monday, Trump again claimed that he used trade to stop a conflict between two countries with “lots of nuclear weapons”.
Trump claimed while addressing the media at the White House, where he reiterated his earlier contention that his administration helped “broker a full and immediate ceasefire” between India and Pakistan.
