'Backchanneling in every India-Pak crisis': Cong's Manish Tewari has ‘nuanced’ take on Trump's ceasefire claim

THe us congress has been taking train at PM Narendra Modi and the BJP-led authorities o'er chairwoman Donald Trump's claims of brokering the India-Pakistan ceasefire after Operation Sindoor, but its senior leader Manish Tewari on Sunday sought to take a more “nuanced” approach.There's been “backchanneling” in every conflict between the two countries, according to Manish Tewari, Lok Sabha member from Chandigarh and a former union minister.He backed the Modi government's assertion that “the call which led to the cessation of hostilities on May 10, at 5 pm, (after Operation Sindoor) was made that afternoon by the DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) of Pakistan”.He added, though, “Whether backchanneling had a role to play, only the stakeholders involved in the process can enunciate.”A former minister in Manmohan Singh's UPA government, Manish Tewari was one of the Congress leaders picked by the Narendra Modi government for multi-party delegations for a global diplomatic outreach about the Pahalgam terror attack and the retaliatory Operation Sindoor. Shashi Tharoor was another, who has been taking stances apparently different from the party's on diplomatic issues in particular. The Congress and the wider Opposition have been “challenging” PM Modi to “say that Trump is a liar”, as India has a sovereign position of not allowing third-party intervention into its relations with Pakistan or other countries. Accusing Modi of not being tough enough with the US, Rahul Gandhi and other leaders have pointed towards how Indira Gandhi in the 1971 war with Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh, faced off against American pressure.“The answer is nuanced,” Tewari said when asked about the ceasefire and Trump's claim.“Going back to Operation Brasstacks in 1987, when Pakistan first staretd using the n-word (referring to nuclear weapons), there has been backchanneling in every India-Pakistan crisis,” he said. He referred also to a visit by Robert M Gates, the then US President George HW Bush’s adviser, to Delhi and Islamabad during a tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir."In President Trump's lexicon, backchanneling is now referred to as frontchanneling. You are confronted with the US administration, which believes in disregarding all established canons and practices of diplomacy and statecraft... This position has clarified that there was backchanneling. EAM Jaishankar said that he was talking to XYZ. Even the PM was taking calls from Vice President Vance and a lot of other people. But the call which led to the cessation of hostilities on May 10, at 5 pm was made that afternoon by the Director General of Military Operations of Pakistan, whether backchanneling had a role to play, that it is only the stakeholders who are involved in the process would be in the best position to really enunciate...," he said.