President Trump stirred a hornet's nest with the claim that he had been requested by Narendra Modi the Indian prime Minister to mediate on the Kashmir issue. He claimed that Modi personally spoke to him in a meeting during the last conference at Manila. The statement by Donald Trump is to the liking of Imran Khan the Pakistan prime minister who is on a visit to America.CNN has reported that immediately after this statement India denied the claim of the US president. Raveesh Kumar, the spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted late Monday that "no such request has been made" by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Indian reaction

Trump's offer has not gone down well with India. The Indian foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar in a reaction in both houses of parliament stated that Prime Minister Modi had not talked about Kashmir with Donald Trump and the question of asking him to mediate on this problem does not arise. This swift rebuttal will possibly not be to the liking of Donald Trump who has not said anything further.

The chance that Mr. Narendra Modi could have made such a request to the American president does not appear to be true. No Indian leader since 1972 has ever said that third-party mediation would be allowed. This is based on the 1972 Simla agreement with Pakistan which states that Kashmir and other problems with Pakistan will be discussed bilaterally.

Many people are wondering what the motive of President Trump was to have made such a statement. It must be put on record that no president before this had ever publicly made a statement regarding arbitration on the Kashmir issue. This statement by Trump marks a sea change in American policy.

Trump

Trump who has just been censured by Congress is a man who has a propensity to tell lies.

A prominent newspaper, Washington Post has given a figure of 10,796 lies uttered by Donald Trump in the three years of his presidency. Keeping this record in mind it is possible that this claim by Donald Trump appears to be a lie to bolster his ideas. At the same time, it must be appreciated that the president made this far-reaching statement and there must be some reason for it.

One of the reasons could be his chagrin at the Indian government for going in for the S400 missile system from Russia and secondly, he could be unhappy with the trade deficit with India. Trump who had earlier condemned Pakistan as a fomenter of terror and stopped all military aid to it, may be having a rethink, especially after US forces failed to win the war in Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera News has reported that Trump, last year, slashed millions of dollars of security assistance to Islamabad. Trump now has to rely on Imran Khan to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for him. Unfortunately for Trump, Imran Khan does not have much control over governance in Pakistan where the Army chief General Javed Bajwa calls the shots.

It was no surprise that the general accompanied the Pakistan prime minister on his visit to the USA. Such a thing never happened earlier. Imran Khan has invited Trump to Pakistan and as per reports he has accepted. Trump has so far not visited India.

China factor

The USA, at the same time, is trying to rope in India to contain China. Modi is not playing ball and this could be another reason for Trump to have made this statement. India has already rejected any third party mediation for decades and the Indian policy is that any problem with Pakistan is to be worked out within the framework of the Simla agreement of 1972. This agreement mentions that all problems between India and Pakistan will be solved bilaterally. Donald Trump sometimes has the propensity to say lies to support his line of thought. It remains to be seen how the state department will undo the damage which has been inflicted by Donald Trump.