‘Count now 70’: Congress takes dig at PM as Trump repeats ‘India-Pak’ claim

The Congress on Wednesday sharpened its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after US President Donald Trump once again claimed credit for ending the India-Pakistan conflict last year, mocking the repeated assertion by saying the tally of such claims has now climbed to 70.

The Opposition party’s swipe followed Trump’s remarks in Washington, where he listed halting the India-Pakistan hostilities among what he described as the major achievements of the first year of his second term in the White House. Trump claimed the two nuclear-armed neighbours were on the brink of a catastrophic war and suggested his intervention had prevented a nuclear confrontation, saving millions of lives.

Taking to X, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the count of Trump’s claims had jumped sharply in a single day. “Before yesterday the count stood at 68. Yesterday itself the count shot up not to 69 but to 70 — once in the opening statement of his White House press conference and later in the Q&A,” Ramesh wrote.

In a barbed jibe at the prime minister, Ramesh added that this was the number of times Modi’s “good friend” and the “recipient of his many forced hugs” had declared himself responsible for the sudden halt of Operation Sindoor on 10 May 2025.

At a packed White House press briefing, Trump said he had ended “eight unendable wars in 10 months”, listing conflicts ranging from Cambodia-Thailand to Kosovo-Serbia, Congo-Rwanda, and India-Pakistan. “Pakistan and India, they were really going at it. Eight planes shot down. They were going to go nuclear in my opinion,” Trump said.

He further claimed that Pakistan’s prime minister, during a visit to Washington last year, had told him that “President Trump saved 10 million people, and maybe much more than that”, stressing that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers.

Trump repeated the claim later in the 105-minute press conference while responding to a question on the Nobel Peace Prize, arguing that ending multiple wars had saved tens of millions of lives. “When you look at India and Pakistan, that could have been 10, 15, 20 million people. It could have been more than that. So I saved millions of people,” he said.

The former president has repeatedly asserted, across platforms in the US and abroad, that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, first announcing on social media on 10 May 2025 that the two sides had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after talks mediated by Washington.

India, however, has consistently rejected any suggestion of third-party mediation in the cessation of hostilities.

Trump also reiterated that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for ending or de-escalating multiple conflicts, including those involving Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan — remarks that once again drew sharp political reactions in India, with the Congress using them to question the government’s handling of the narrative around the India-Pakistan ceasefire.

With PTI inputs