Washington, DC [US], June 5 (ANI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the US, stressed that there can be no dialogue with Pakistan with “a gun pointed at our head.” He warned that the action taken by India now can be taken again if Pakistan does not control terror elements on its soil.
During an interaction session at the National Press Club in the US on Wednesday (local time), Tharoor said he thinks the US has understood that India has a clear position that there will be “no talks with a gun pointed at our head.”
When asked about the role played by the US in encouraging talks between India and Pakistan, he responded, “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. It’s not that we can’t talk to Pakistan. I was joking the other day, we can speak all the languages they can speak and we’re very happy to dialogue with them in any of those languages.”
“The problem is we will not dialogue with people who are pointing a gun at our heads. I mean, frankly, if your neighbour unleashes his Rottweilers 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 them until he either unleashes those Rottweilers 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,” he added.
Tharoor emphasised that the all-party parliamentary delegation is in the US to enhance understanding and clarify India’s stance and explain if there are any misapprehensions on the part of interlocutors. He said that all the arty delegation just wants to explain India’s stance, and they do not want nations to do anything other than to understand India’s point of view.
When asked about the outcomes agreed upon or India expects from this visit in terms of US action with regards to Pakistan, he responded, “We aren’t really here to negotiate outcomes. That’s the job of the government. Our job is to enhance understanding, to clarify our position and to explain if there are any questions or misapprehensions on the part of our interlocutors, we’d be very happy to address them. There wasn’t a specific seek on our part beyond that. It’s not that we’ve come here saying, would you do this for us? That’s not what this is all about and that’s true by the way every country we’ve been to.”
“We’re just saying, this is our position, we want you to understand, and if you have any questions, we’ll answer them, but that’s it. We’re not asking them to do anything other than to understand our point of view, to express their solidarity and to stand with us if it happens again. I mean, we have no illusions. These buildings we’ve destroyed and the terror camps can be built again in six months, nine months, who knows? The problem is, if they think they can keep doing this to us, they’ve got another thing coming because we are not going to take it. If they hit us, we will hit them back. And we want the world to understand not only what just happened, but what could happen again if Pakistan does not control these elements on its soil,” he added.
The delegation led by Tharoor arrived in the US on Wednesday. The delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora.
Tharoor refuted US President Donald Trump’s claims of stopping the war between Pakistan and India using trade. He noted that a lot of calls were made to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, he stated that none of the calls mentioned trade. He stated that India did not need persuasion to stop and was willing to call off at any time when the other party did.
On US President Donald Trump claiming credit for the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan using trade, he responded, “That’s not the impression I have. It is a public record that there were calls coming from various foreign ministers to our Foreign Minister, to our national security advisor, and the US was amongst the most active in this regard and that Secretary Rubio spoke to his Indian counterpart, Jaishankar….At one point, Mr Vance, the Vice President called our Prime Minister. So, there were a lot of calls being made and that’s true also the foreign ministers of the UAE, of Saudi Arabia, France and so on. Many countries were concerned. My understanding is that none of these calls was trade ever mentioned, not one. And certainly our information is that from our side, we gave a consistent response throughout which corresponds to what I’ve just said to all of you, that we are only taking retribution for a terrorist attack, we are not interested in prolonging this conflict.
“If Pakistan hits us, we will head back because we have a right of self-defence. If Pakistan stops, we will stop. So we didn’t need persuading to stop. And that message was given regularly to everybody else who called. I knew that some of this was actually out on the Twitter timeline of our foreign minister. So, it was an open thing that we’re talking to people and letting them know we’re ready to call this off any time the others do. And the others were the ones who were prolonging it. Only Pakistan had one foot on the escalatory ladder, not India. In every case they initiated, we retaliated,” he added.
The all-party delegation arrived in the US after concluding their visit to Brazil. The delegation aims to brief key stakeholders in the US on Operation Sindoor, India’s diplomatic initiative launched to counter terrorism and disinformation following the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, which claimed 26 lives and injured several others.
The Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in the deaths of over 100 terrorists affiliated with groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen. The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. India and Pakistan agreed for a cessation of hostilities on May 10. (ANI)
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