Opposition leaders have come out strongly against US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate a resolution to the decades-old Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, dubbing the proposal as “unacceptable interference.”

Donald Trump has on Sunday expressed willingness to mediate a resolution to the decades-old Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan.

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“….I will work with you both to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir. God Bless the leadership of India and Pakistan on a job well done,” Mr Trump had said in a post on his social media platform X.

India is opposed to any third-party intervention or mediation on the issue of Kashmir as it is an integral part of its territory.

Questioning if India had “abandoned the Shimla Agreement” and whether “doors to third-party mediation” have been opened, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also wondered if diplomatic channels with Pakistan have been opened.

“Have we abandoned the Shimla Agreement? Have we opened the doors to third-party mediations……….The Indian National Congress would like to ask if diplomatic channels between India and Pakistan are being reopened,” Mr Ramesh questioned in a post on social media platform X.

Another Congress leader Manish Tewari also questioned if the Simla Agreement, signed between India and Pakistan in 1972, where both sides agreed to resolve their issues bilaterally without any third-party intervention, has become a thing of the past.

Expressing surprise at the announcement of ceasefire between India and Pakistan by US President Donald Trump, another Congress leader Sachin Pilot said it has happened for the first time and was an attempt to “internationalise the Kashmir issue.”

Questioning the Narendra Modi government on the issue of the US’s role in mediating the Kashmir issue Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi shared a post on X: “We don’t need a US intervention or that of any other country to find a solution on Kashmir. Destiny has given us that responsibility and India must rise up to that challenge.”

Taking serious exception to the US president’s offer, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha questioned: “Who are you to decide? Who gave you the mandate?”

Asking the government to lodge a “strong protest,” Mr Jha also criticised the US President for announcing a ceasefire “before we could even give our official briefing.”

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi who took serious exception to US President making the ceasefire announcement, said in a post on X: “I wish it had been our government that informed the country of a ceasefire, not the President of a foreign nation.”

Asserting that any resolution between India and Pakistan should be bilateral and not shaped by outside influence, Mr Owaisi said: “We have always opposed third-party involvement since Simla (1972). Why are we accepting it now?”