Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading the all-party delegation disptached by the government to partner countries to expose Pakistan and emplify Operation Sindoor message, on Tuesday went against his own party line as he rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that he used trade to stop the recent India-Pakistan confrontation from escalating to a nuclear war.

Tharoor, who is currently in Brazil and will leave to the US for the last leg of the visit, said India had already said to stop and that if there was any persuasion by the US president, it would have been the persuasion of the Pakistanis.

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“No one needed to persuade us to stop. We had already said to stop. If there was any persuasion by the American president or his senior officials, it would have been persuasion of the Pakistanis. They would have had to be persuaded,” he said.

Tharoor further stated that Indian did not need to be persuaded as the country never wanted war. “We want to focus on development. That is the basic message,” said the Congress MP.

Tharoor emphasized that India’s Operation Sindoor was in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

“We had consistently said from the very beginning on May 7th that we are not interested in prolonging the conflict. This is not the opening salvo in some sort of war. All it is is retribution against the terrorists, period. If Pakistan had not reacted, we would not have reacted…,” he added.

Interestingly, the views of Congress MP, whose remarks praising the Narendra Modi governemnt and supporting the Centre’s narrative, have earned him criticism from party colleagues, and are in sharp contrast with the official line of the Congress.

The Opposition party has been targeting the Modi government ever since Trump announced a sudden ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The Congres has questioned the role of the US president, especially his claim that India and Pakistan agreed to the ceasefire after he threatened to stop all trade with them.