Modi bowed to Trump, stopped Operation Sindoor ‘within 5 hours’: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 27 August, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of bowing to US pressure, claiming he halted military action against Pakistan “within five hours” of a directive from Donald Trump.

Addressing a rally in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur as part of the state-wide Voter Adhikar Yatra, Gandhi claimed that Trump had publicly stated he instructed Modi to end hostilities with Pakistan within 24 hours. “Trump said he gave Modi 24 hours, but Modi obeyed in just five,” the Congress MP said, referring to a viral video of Trump at a White House cabinet meeting.

While Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for defusing the standoff between the two nuclear powers, the Modi government has firmly denied any US mediation, asserting that the ceasefire was the result of direct talks between Indian and Pakistani militaries.

Targeting the media, Rahul Gandhi said, “They won’t show you Trump’s statement. They only serve Modi and his corporate friends, not leaders like me, Stalin or Tejashwi.”

The leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also escalated his attack on the Election Commission (EC), accusing it of enabling the BJP’s “vote theft”.

He alleged that the BJP’s so-called “Gujarat model” was built on vote chori (vote stealing) and claimed, “Modi and Shah win elections not through people’s mandate, but by manipulating votes with the EC’s help.”

On the ongoing controversy over Bihar’s draft electoral rolls, Gandhi said the deletion of 65 lakh names — shown as “dead”, “shifted” or “absent” — was part of a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise marginalised groups. “Thousands of people are telling us their names have been wrongly struck off. Many living citizens are being declared dead. The EC is targeting Dalits, OBCs, EBCs and minorities because the BJP does not want their voices heard,” he alleged.

Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as the INDIA bloc's chief ministerial candidate were joined at the rally by INDIA bloc allies M.K. Stalin and Kanimozhi of the DMK and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI(M-L) Liberation, together vowing to keep producing evidence of alleged electoral manipulation.

“I have already shown proof of vote theft. In the coming days, I will bring out more,” Gandhi said.

The Voter Adhikar Yatra, aimed at highlighting electoral roll irregularities, is set to continue for three more days across Bihar, before it culminates in Patna on 1 September.

With PTI inputs