Both the US and India on Tuesday scrambled to play down President Donald Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought mediation in the Kashmir dispute and ruled out the possibility of any such intervention.

But the two principal protagonists did little to clear the air. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained silent and deputed foreign minister and former diplomat S. Jaishankar to emphatically and repeatedly deny that such a conversation took place with the US President, a top aide to Trump vouched for the credibility of his boss.

Trump “does not make things up”, declared Trump’s chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow at the White House in response to a question from a reporter.

Reporter: “The President said that he had been asked by Indian Prime Minister Modi to mediate between India and Pakistan. India says that is not even close to truth. Did the President just make that up, Sir?”

Kudlow: “No, the President doesn’t make anything up. That’s a very rude question, in my opinion. I am going to stay out of that. It is outside of my lane.”

Kudlow added: “It’s for Mr Bolton, Mr Pompeo and the President, so I am not going to comment on that. The President does not make things up.”

The economic adviser was referring to US national security adviser John Bolton and secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

The last time Kudlow had said it was out of his lane was when Trump tweeted recently that four Democratic congresswomen of colour should “go back” to the countries they came from.

“That’s way out of my lane,” Kudlow had said on July 15 when asked about the President’s weekend tweets.

On Tuesday, the US state department tried to douse the flames that have ignited a political firestorm in India by tweeting that it supported any dialogue between India and Pakistan but Kashmir was a matter for the two countries.

“While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes Pakistan and India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist,” it said.

In Parliament, the Opposition insisted that Prime Minister Modi should clear the air.

Foreign minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament: “The US President made certain remarks to the effect he was ready to mediate if requested by India and Pakistan. I categorically assure the House that no such request has been made by the Prime Minister, I repeat, no such request was made.”

Additional reporting by Reuters, PTI and NYTNS