SRINAGAR: The Indian government on Wednesday rejected the reports of asking US President to mediate on Kashmir, clarifying that third party mediation on Kashmir is out of question.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the parliament said that there was no question of mediation in Kashmir issue as it will be against the Shimla agreement.
As the Opposition walked out of the Lower House, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India will not accept any form of mediation in the Kashmir issue. “It’s a matter of our dignity,” Singh said.
On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar had made a statement in both houses denying President Trump’s claim that PM Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir. “I would like to categorically assure…that no such request has been made by the Prime Minister to the US President. I repeat, no such request was made by the Prime Minister to the US President,” Jaishankar had said.
Referring to that clarification today, Rajnath Singh said: “What the foreign minister said is authentic because he was present when Trump and PM Modi held discussions in Osaka and he has put out the statement on record. We feel there is no further statement required by anyone on this.”
Earlier, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had demanded a statement “from the horse’s mouth” on Trump’s claim.
On Monday, President Trump, at a White House briefing with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, said on Kashmir: “”I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago, and we talked about the subject. And he actually said, ‘would you like to be a mediator, or arbitrator’, and I said ‘where?’, and he said ‘Kashmir’, because this has been going on for many, many years.” (PTK)
