Trump mediation claim: Yechury says Govt has to clarify who is

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday demanded a "proper clarification" from the Centre on the US President Donald Trump's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked him to mediate on the Kashmir issue.

"We should know who is speaking the truth - either Mr Modi or Mr Trump is saying the truth," Yechury told reporters here.

Trump has claimed that the Indian prime minister has asked him to mediate on the Kashmir issue and "although the MEA and our external affairs minister has rejected the claim, there has to be a proper clarification as the truth should come out".

The ministry of external affairs(MEA) has rejected Trump's remarks made during his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at White House that Modi had asked him to mediate in resolving the Kashmir issue with Pakistan.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that Prime Minister Modi had made no request to US President Trump on the issue.

Yechury said that India has always maintained that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and there is no scope for third party intervention. This position had been maintained during the Simla Agreement (in 1972) and was the basis of Lahore declaration (1999) and this should be maintained.

The Congress and other opposition parties have demanded that Modi should clarify whether there has been a shift in India's position on third party involvement in Kashmir after Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan.

India has not been engaging with Pakistan since the attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.