Washington/IBNS: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has denied having any third party mediation during the India-Pakistan military action, contradicting his party leader Rahul Gandhi's claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "surrendered" and called a ceasefire acting as per US President Donald Trump's command.

Tharoor denied Rahul's claim during his stay in Washington DC as the leader of an all-party delegation to brief the world on Operation Sindoor.

Tharoor, who is currently leading an all-party delegation in Washington DC, said, "We have enormous respect for the American presidency and the American President. All we can say for ourselves is that we have never particularly wanted to ask anyone to mediate. We have no real difficulty in speaking the same language as the Pakistanis. As long as they use the language of terrorism, we will use the language of force and that doesn't require a third party.

"If on the other hand, they were to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure we can talk to them. If they take serious actions to show that they want to restore normal relationships with us, we can certainly talk to them again without needing an intermediary... India didn't need persuading to stop. No one needed to tell us to stop because we were telling them the moment Pakistan stops, we are prepared to stop. So if they, in turn, told the Pakistani, You better stop because the Indians are willing to stop and that was what they did. And that's a wonderful gesture on their part."

The former diplomat added, "I think the US has understood for some time now that India has a very clear position that there will be no talks with a gun pointed at our head... The problem is that we will not deal with people who are pointing a gun at our heads. I mean frankly, if your neighbour unleashes his rot while as to bite your children and in fact to do worse to your children, and then says, let's talk.

"You think he's going to talk to him until he either unleashes those rockweers or locks them up in a kennel or puts them to sleep. It's as simple as that. You're not going to talk to people who are pointing guns at your temples. It's not going to happen."

What did Rahul Gandhi say?

Addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, Rahul Gandhi claimed India "surrendered" during last month's military conflict with Pakistan upon the direction of US President Donald Trump.

"Now I understand BJP-RSS very well. They get scared and run away under pressure like they did in front of Trump. Trump said, 'Modi-ji... what are you doing? Narender, surrender'. Narendra Modi-ji said 'ji huzoor' and acted as per Trump's command."

Rahul reminded the crowd about his grandmother and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's decision to go into the Liberation War with Pakistan in 1971 despite the US objections.

"You would remember the Seventh Fleet (from the US) came but Indira Gandhi went ahead with the war. This is the difference. It is their (BJP-RSS) character, all of them are like this. Since Independence, they have had this habit of writing 'surrender' letters."

Trump claims mediation role but India denies

In one of his recent addresses, US President Donald Trump said he stopped a potential nuclear war between hostile Asian neighbours India and Pakistan with trade despite New Delhi's repeated rejections of such claims made by Washington in the past.

Speaking to the press, Trump said he was proud of the fact that he could avert the war with trade and not bullets.

Trump said, "I think the deal I'm most proud of is the fact that we're dealing with India, we're dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade as opposed through bullets. You know, normally they do it through bullets.

"We do it through trade. So I'm very proud of that. Nobody talks about it. But we had a very nasty potential war going on between Pakistan and India. And now, if you look, they're doing fine."

'US was in the United States': Jaishankar junks Trump's India-Pak mediation claims

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar earlier said it was Pakistan that had reached out to India for a deal to cease the military conflicts, rubbishing Trump's claims that he had acted as a mediator.

Speaking to Netherlands-based broadcaster NOS, Jaishankar had said, "It was the Pakistani army which sent a message that they were ready to stop firing, and we responded accordingly."

Regarding Washington's involvement in the ceasefire, the minister said, "The US was in the United States."

"We made one thing very clear to everybody who spoke to us, not just the United States but to everyone, saying if the Pakistanis want to stop fighting, they need to tell us. We need to hear it from them. Their general has to call up our general and say this. And that is what happened," he added.

In a retaliation against the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor hitting nine terrorist bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The military conflict escalated after Pakistan targeted civilians across the borders without any provocation to be aptly countered by the Indian military.