India's Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on the occasion of QUAD meeting held in Washington DC the other day again challenged President Donald Trump's claim of brokering ceasefire between Pakistan and India after the May 7-10 military conflict between them. In an interview with Newsweek, Jaishankar said, "I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice-President JD Vance spoke to Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi on the night of May 9. There was no linking of trade and ceasefire."

Two months after the four-day war, India is still in a denial mode, as Jaishankar went on to say that "later that day, Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdullah, directly contacted his Indian counterpart to request a ceasefire", and that was how the standoff was managed. Trump has, however, repeatedly taken credit for the ceasefire and offered mediation on the Kashmir conflict. Pakistan, endorsing the American president's stance on ceasefire, has welcomed his offer to mediate on the Kashmir conflict despite the fact that since the singing of Shimla pact of July 1972, New Delhi has been against any external role over its unresolved issues with Islamabad.

For how long will the Indo-Pak standoff continue and will New Delhi assert its position in the White House and Capitol Hill? Will the once influential Indian lobby in Washington DC re-establish its clout in the American policymaking circles? Or the Modi regime needs to transform its approach on terrorism and instead of blaming Pakistan without any........

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