The Congress on Saturday took a sharp dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Donald Trump's claim that five jets had been lost during the recentIndia-Pakistan conflict, questioning his friendship and "huglomacy" with the US President. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that PM Modi must break the silence on whetherIndia lost fighter jets during the conflict. "We don't want a substitute batsman," he quipped.
"Since May 10 till today, US President Donald Trump has repeated two things 24 times. First, he stopped the war between India and Pakistan; second, he says that the war should stop if India and Pakistan want trade with the US... Now he has claimed something new that five fighter jets went down... The Parliament is about to begin, and the PM should break his silence... Any other leader will not do. The Congress and the entire Opposition will demand a special discussion, and the PM must answer... We don't want a substitute batsman. Only the PM must answer," he said.
Jairam Ramesh demanded a statement by PM Modi in the parliament.
"The sensational new revelation by President Trump this time around is that five jets may have been downed. The Prime Minister, who has had years of friendship and huglomacy with President Trump going back to Howdy Modi in Sept 2019 and Namaste Trump in Feb 2020, has to now himself make a clear and categorical statement in Parliament on what President Trump has been claiming over the past 70 days," the Congress Rajya Sabha MP posted on X.
Donald Trump has claimed on several occasions that it was the US that brokered a ceasefire understanding between warring India and Pakistan in May. India has refuted the claim, saying Pakistani DGMO called his Indian counterpart, seeking a cessation of hostilities.
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He also claimed that five jets had been downed during the aerial skirmishes.
"We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that were going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually. These are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other. You know, it seems like a new form of warfare. You saw it recently when you looked at what we did in Iran, where we knocked out their nuclear capability, totally knocked out that," he said.
India hasn't officially communicated that it lost aircraft. However, some of the Indian defence officials have hinted at initial losses during the four-day-long conflict.

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