'Building a narrative': Ex-RAW chief Vikram Sood dismisses Trump-Modi phone call German report

Former RAW chief Vikram Sood has dismissed reports that U.S. President Donald Trump tried to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi four times as part of a larger narrative, calling it the "usual postwar" aimed at portraying Trump as reasonable while depicting Modi negatively.

Sood said, "This seems to be the usual postwar building a narrative suggesting Trump is being reasonable and big hearted but Modi is not."

He further observed, "Also strange that these reports are appearing in Japan and Germany. The American press will soon reproduce or comment citing these two 'sources'. The story line will be Good Guy(DJT) versus Bad Guy (NM) and along similar lines."

The remarks came after German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that Trump attempted four calls to Modi over recent weeks, which the Indian leader did not answer. FAZ suggested this refusal reflected "the depth of his anger, but also his caution." The newspaper highlighted the context of U.S.-India tensions following Washington’s imposition of 50% tariffs on Indian goods and penalties over India's purchase of Russian crude.

Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal questioned the plausibility of the German report, stating, "What would be the reason for Trump to call Modi four times? To say what? If there is a coherent answer to that then some credence can be given to this German report. The question to ask is why this is appearing in a German paper and not in the US paper or in the Indian media."

FAZ also noted that Modi’s caution may have been shaped by past U.S. negotiations, including Trump's renegotiation of a trade pact with Vietnam over a single phone call and subsequent announcements on social media, which FAZ said Modi did not want to replicate. Analysts such as Mark Frazier, co-director of the India-China Institute at the New School in New York, argued, "America's strategy isn't working. The American concept of an 'Indo-Pacific' alignment, in which India would play a central role in the US's containment of China, is collapsing."