Brother-Sister duo Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi intensified criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, questioning his silence on US President Donald Trump’s claims of brokering peace between India and Pakistan.

While Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi claimed Modi’s reticence stems from fear of further revelations from Trump, potentially tied to ongoing trade deal discussions, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar of giving “gol-mol” (evasive) answers during the Operation Sindoor debate, asking them to directly say that US President Donald Trumo is lying about his ceasefire claim.

Talking to reporters outside Parliament, Rahul said that PM Modi is unable to refute Trump’s claim because the US President will then speak openly and reveal the entire truth.

“Because the truth is, if the PM says something, then he (Donald Trump) will have to speak openly and reveal the entire truth – that is why he (PM Modi) is unable to speak,” Rahul said.

“Why is he (Trump) saying that? Because he wants his trade deal, so he’ll put pressure on PM Modi there. Just watch how the trade deal turns out,” he added.

Gandhi challenged Modi to call Trump a “liar” in Parliament, referencing Indira Gandhi’s leadership during the 1971 war. “If Narendra Modi has even 50 per cent of the courage of Indira Gandhi, he should stand up to Trump and call him a liar.”

Earlier, Priyanka told media persons outside Parliament that words used by Modi and Jaishankar, if you carefully listen to them, are ‘gol-mol’ words.

Her latest remarks came after External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, while intervening in the debate on Operation Sindoor, reiterated in the Rajya Sabha that PM Modi and US President Donald Trump did not speak on phone between April 22 and June 16.

“I want to tell them. ‘Kaan khol ke sun le’ (listen carefully): There was no phone call between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump from April 22 to June 16,” the minister asserted.

Gandhi also rejected the claims that the US used trade to force India and Pakistan to agree to the ceasefire, saying “There was no leader anywhere in the world who asked India to stop its operations. There was no linkage with trade. There were no calls between our Prime Minister and President Trump.”

Trump has claimed on various occasions that he used trade to persuade India and Pakistan for a ceasefire during their brief conflict in May early this year.

Notably, the US president not was the first to announce the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, even as the government claims the cessation of firing was directly negotiated by the armies of the two countries, Trump has repeated his claim 29 times till now.

(Author is a veteran journalist and think-tanker.)