POTUS Trump Overshadows India’s Parliament as Ceasefire Credit Row Dominates Operation Sindoor Debate
When India’s Parliament gathered this week for a critical session on Operation Sindoor, launched in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, it wasn’t the Indian armed forces or the political leadership that dominated the national conversation.
It was US President Donald Trump. His repeated claims of mediating the ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of intense military action forced India’s top leaders to respond on the floor of Parliament. It also triggered an unusually sharp political and diplomatic debate that overshadowed the original intent of the session.
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That announcement was made just hours after Indian forces halted Operation Sindoor, a high-intensity air and drone campaign targeting Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked infrastructure across the Line of Control. Since then, Trump has reiterated his role on multiple occasions, implying that the crisis was resolved under US pressure.
India has denied that version of events. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated firmly in the Lok Sabha that there was no linkage between trade and the operation, and that the request for a ceasefire came from Pakistan’s side via the military-to-military DGMO channel.
He emphasised that there was no communication between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump between April 22 and June 17, directly rebutting Trump’s timeline.
Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, used Trump’s claim to attack the Modi government, alleging that the prime minister allowed strategic constraints to weaken India’s military response.
He questioned why India informed Pakistan mid-operation that it would not target military infrastructure, and asked why, if Trump’s claims were false, the prime minister had not publicly rebutted them.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, speaking in the Lok Sabha, called the episode “a historic first” where the announcement of a ceasefire came not from the Indian Army or government but from a foreign leader.
She said the moment reflected “irresponsibility at the top,” and accused the Modi government of lacking accountability and trying to manage perception over substance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded with force, turning the spotlight back on the opposition.
He said it was Pakistan’s DGMO that requested a halt to India’s operation after suffering major damage, and that no world leader--not even the US--asked India to stop.
Modi also took aim at what he called the “Congress ecosystem” for echoing Pakistan’s narratives and undermining the morale of Indian forces.
Throughout the day, Trump’s name recurred more than any other foreign leader, a rare instance of an American president becoming a central point in India’s domestic debate on national security.
Modi made no direct mention of Trump but left little doubt about who he was responding to when he said, “No leader anywhere in the world asked us to stop.”
The veiled attack underscored a broader concern within the Indian establishment about the political optics of external involvement, especially one that appeared to dent the narrative of a strong, sovereign military response.
The significance of Operation Sindoor was further deepened by the announcement from Home Minister Amit Shah that the three terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam massacre had been killed in a follow-up operation named Mahadev.
But even that success was, to a degree, subsumed by the political storm over who claimed what, and who stopped what.
What was intended to be a moment of consensus over India’s decisive military posture instead became a high-pitched exchange over narrative ownership.
In a session that should have spotlighted India's counter-terror response and regional deterrence, the headlines were once again written--this time, from Trump's playbook.