What did Trump-Munir cook up for India at White House Lunch?

It was good that PM Modi avoided his Friend’s trap to see embarrassment

- BY SUSHIL KUTTY

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir had lunch with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Missing from the menu was the delectable ‘Ambush Modi’, the main course. Gen. Munir must not have known. But not many knew till Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri woke up the Indian media and let the cat out of the bag.

President Trump had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi up in the dead of Tuesday night and invited him to the White House. But Modi must have got a whiff of the Pakistani biryani and excused himself from the Trump bash.

Prime Minister Modi cited “prior engagement”. President Trump and Gen. Asim Munir had to settle for whatever there was on the table. One report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were also at the lunch.

First reports said General Syed Asim Munir, who had promoted himself to Field Marshal, had been invited to join in the US Army’s 250th anniversary celebrations. But then, the US army said ‘no’ and Munir got the lunch invitation.

But minus President Trump's surprise dish ‘Ambush Modi’, the lunch failed to liven up the small-talk in the White House Cabinet Room thanks to Prime Minister Modi, a killjoy! And there wasn't even a dress-code.

Trump's lunch for Gen Munir was planned to embarrass Modi and get him into a meeting with President Trump and the Pakistani general with Trump playing “dealmaker”, a Trump forte!

Of late, Trump has taken on the mantle of peacemaker and warmonger, both rolled into one. Witness Trump's dangerous shenanigans in the Iran-Israel war and the Modi-Munir ambush was planned to land President Trump yet another shot at a Nobel-winning deal.

Trump made the Modi call on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri woke up the Indian media and told them of the devil in the details. Result: Trump's planned deviltry was out in the open though Trump failed in his “Mission Impossible”.