‘Rebuff to self-styled Vishwaguru’: Cong on reports of Pak mediation in West Asia
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Tuesday said that if reports of Pakistan being one of the intermediaries between the US-Israel and Iran are true, then they represent a "severe setback" and "rebuff" to India.
The opposition party claimed that in spite of India's undoubted military successes in Operation Sindoor, the sad reality is that thereafter Pakistan's diplomatic engagement and narrative management has been "markedly superior to that of the Modi government".
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said multiple reports in leading international media outlets have identified Pakistan as one of the intermediaries being used between the US and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other.
"If these reports are true, they represent a severe setback and rebuff to India - and it is all attributable to the self-styled Vishwaguru," Ramesh said on X.
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"For over a year, it has been abundantly clear that in spite of our undoubted military successes in Operation Sindoor, the sad reality is that thereafter Pakistan's diplomatic engagement and narrative management has been markedly superior to that of the Modi government," he said.
Pakistan which was in a hugely precarious situation, politically, socially, economically and globally, has received a fresh lease of life, Ramesh said.
"President Trump warmly and repeatedly embraced the man whose incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric formed the backdrop to the Pahalgam terror attacks on April 22 2025, and hosted Field Marshall Asim Munir twice in the White House (including for an unprecedented lunch). The Pakistani establishment has developed a cosy relationship with President Trump's immediate circle," he claimed.
"Mr. Modi's ill-advised visit to Israel, that ended just two days before the unprovoked US-Israel aerial assaults on Iran began, will go down in our political history as a singularly disastrous choice - one that has made us retreat from a position where we could and should have mediated," the Congress leader said.
The prime minister's "huglomacy" stands brutally exposed, he said, adding that the country is being forced to pay a price for this.
President Donald Trump on Monday said the US was talking with a respected Iranian leader and claimed the Islamic Republic was eager for a deal to end the war
Trump, however, refused to name the Iranian leader the US is in talks with to end the three-week-old war, asserting that the interlocutor was a top person who is most respected in that country.
Speaking to reporters at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, Trump made it clear that the US was not in talks with the second Supreme Leader, a reference to Ayatollah Khamanei's son Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to reports, Iran has denied being in talks with the US, but admitted that some countries in the region were making efforts to reduce tensions.
Axios news website quoted a US source as saying that Turkiye, Egypt, and Pakistan have been passing messages between the US and Iran over the past two days.
The foreign ministers of the three countries held separate talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the US source told Axios.
The president said Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy for the Middle East, and Jared Kushner spoke with their Iranian counterparts on Sunday.
However, Trump declined to say to whom Witkoff was speaking, saying he did not want them to be killed.
Starting February 28, the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The joint strikes came after days of build-up with US President Donald Trump ramping up the pressure on Tehran to agree to a new deal on its nuclear programme.
Iran's retaliation escalated the war to the entire Gulf region.
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Brittas urges Parliament resolution on Iran conflict, recalls Vajpayee-era Iraq war motion
New Delhi (PTI): CPI(M) MP John Brittas on Tuesday cited Parliament's 2003 unanimous resolution under then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee condemning the Iraq war, to urge the government to move a similar motion on the Iran conflict.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during zero hour, Brittas called for a "united and unanimous voice" of Parliament against what he described as unilateral and illegal wars by the US and Israel on Iran, saying India should not remain silent.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address in the Lok Sabha on Monday, he said key economic concerns and diaspora issues were raised but there was no reference to the broader conflict, which he said warranted a clear position from India.
"What was missing was the silence on this unilateral, immoral, illegal war that has been unleashed by the United States and Israel," he said.
The Prime Minister, he said, called for a unanimous and united voice from the Parliament.
Addressing chairman C P Radhakrishnan who was a member of the Lok Sabha in 2003, he said at that time, both the Houses of Parliament when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, passed joint, unanimous resolution condemning the war against Iraq by the United States.
"I wish that Indian Parliament, as the Prime Minister said, should express unanimously a united voice," he said. "Let the government bring a resolution which should be passed by both the Houses."
Brittas said India has termed the attacks on Gulf countries by Iran as egregious.
"But what about the genesis of this crisis?" he asked. "I wish that the government does not go by the advice of (Congress leader) Shashi Tharoor who said that silence is statecraft. I wish that they should be guided by the advice from (Congress president) Mallikarjun Kharge not from Shahi Tharoor."
Kharge has repeatedly demanded an immediate short-duration discussion on the Iran war and its fallout on India.
"I wish that India, being a leader of the non-alignment nations, should feel that silence is not a solution. We have to make sure that our voice is heard. And it is not only for the selfish interest of the nation but for the interest of the larger humanity. So I call on the government to come with a resolution," Brittas said.
He also flagged concerns over Indians affected by the situation, including around 700 seafarers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, and urged the government to put in place a mechanism to facilitate communication with their families.
Brittas sought a rehabilitation package for Gulf returnees, highlighting the scale of remittances to India and their importance to Kerala's economy.
Kerala gets almost Rs 2.2 lakh crore - one third of the state's gross domestic product - in remittances, he said.
Prime Minister Modi in his address in Lok Sabha on Monday talked about economic fall out of the war in Iran, disruptions in supply chain, impact on daily lives of people, serious situation on the LPG front and the condition of the Indian diaspora but was silent on military strikes launched by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28, which triggered a wider conflict in the region.
