Congress leader Salman Khurshid has added to the already confused statements by Donald Trump, wherein he said that maybe Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the US President to “meditate” and he may have heard it as “mediate”
Mumbai: Confusion between "mediate" and' "meditate" might have led US President Donald Trump to believe that India wanted him to intervene in the Kashmir issue, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid quipped on Thursday (July 25).
Khurshid was speaking at the launch of his book "Visible Muslim, Invisible Citizen: Understanding Islam in Indian Democracy", when he joked, "Maybe Prime Minister Modi wanted to say why don't you meditate for Yoga, and he (Donald Trump) thought Modi was asking to mediate."
"It was a problem of communication. But diplomacy is all about communication and if you are not able to communicate properly, what kind of diplomacy you are having," he added.
Trump claimed that PM Modi had asked him to mediate between India and Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.
While Pakistan welcomed Trump’s offer, India however denied his claim that Modi requested him to mediate between India and Pakistan for resolving the Kashmir issue.
"Bilaterally there will never be (a resolution of the Kashmir dispute)," Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan told Fox News, the favourite channel of President Trump.
Soon after, the US issued an apology. "I just apologised to Indian Ambassador Harsh Shringla for Trump's amateurish and embarrassing mistake," Congressman Brad Sherman tweeted hours after Trump's claim.
Despite issuing the apology, Trump’s chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow has stated that Trump "does not make up things".
It is "a very rude question," Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House on Tuesday (July 23) when a journalist asked if the remarks were made up. "The President doesn't make things up," Kudlow said.
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