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New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first address to the nation after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan made no mention of such mediation, opposition parties have questioned his silence on Trump’s claims. Opposition parties have asked whether the ceasefire was a result of US mediation, marking a clear departure from India’s longstanding policy of no third party mediation following the Simla Agreement.

On Monday (May 12), Modi said that India had inflicted so much damage on Pakistan’s air bases and military establishments that its DGMO, on the afternoon of May 10, “desperately” called his Indian counterpart to ensure the Indian military would not take further action.

In a departure from what Trump and US secretary of state Marco Rubio had said – that talks would take place between India and Pakistan “at a neutral location” following the ceasefire announcement – Modi said that no “nuclear blackmail will be tolerated anymore” and reiterated his government’s stated policy that “talks and terror cannot go hand in hand”.

Also on Monday, Trump in a statement claimed that the threat of cutting off trade forced India and Pakistan to stop their fighting, asserting that his administration had stopped a “nuclear conflict” between the two neighbours. While there was no official government response, official sources denied the claim.

Opposition parties have demanded to know why Modi remained silent on Trump’s claims, whether India has changed its longtime policy of no third-party mediation and settling issues bilaterally, and........

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