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All-Party Delegation Leader and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the Pakistani delegation does not have much to be pleased about, because not many countries have spoken in their favour.
Tharoor said that the Indian delegation has provided ample proof that India is not the aggressor, but the victims of terrorism. "Frankly, we weren't bothered. I think in all fairness, we had more important and more appointments generally than they did. So, that's something we can be very pleased about, whether it was senators and congressmen on the hill, whether it was officials of the government, our list of appointments is far, far better than theirs, and I'm very pleased about that. Equally, we've seen some of them tweeting about their meetings. We've not seen the people they met saying anything very supportive or appreciative of Pakistan. So I can't say that they've got very much to be happy about," he said. Tharoor told ANI that while Pakistan only argues that India perpetrated terrorism, the Indian delegation proved that terrorism came from Pakistan instead. "At the moment, we have very much got the better of the argument because when Pakistan says we're innocent, India is the aggressor, we have given arguments where that is not the case. When Pakistan says we are also victims of terrorism, we have pointed out where the terrorism was incubated in the first place. So I would say to you that I don't think we need to worry about these Pakistani arguments," he said. Tharoor said that the delegation also has a meeting lined up with the Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau and that the meetings until now were a great success. "Yeah, we still have a couple of important meetings tomorrow, including the Deputy Secretary of State, and we're seeing in my case I'm doing a ridiculous number of interviews tomorrow with American media. So, it's going to be a very full day... So a lot is going on still. But broadly speaking, the 5 days have been a real, real success. It seems immodest for me as a leader of the delegation to say that, but I believe we acquitted ourselves rather well. We had good conversations everywhere," he said. Tharoor said that Indian embassies did a brilliant job by arranging for appointments with various high-level government heads, think tanks, etc. "Pretty much every country, our embassies did a very good job of arranging high-level contacts to meet the highest levels of government in some countries, top legislators dealing with these issues, think tanks, media, influential media, press, public, and of course, where possible and appropriate, the diaspora. So we covered a lot of bases," he said. Tharoor said that even after a busy trip, the delegation has the satisfaction that they could send the message across that why Operation Sindoor was necessary and reaffirmed the relations of each country with India. "But at the end of the day, two satisfactions. One is, I believe, we got our message across about what happened in Pahalgam. And about Operation Sindoor and why it was necessary. And secondly, we use the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of relations with India with each of these countries," he said. The delegation discussed not just terrorism, but also the countries' relations, areas of cooperation with India. "Everywhere we went, we talked about terrorism, we talked about our response, but also our interlocutors were keen on discussing. Larger issues of cooperation with India, Indian involvement in their development, and their involvement in our development. It's been a terrific experience. I would say these two weeks have been well spent. They have been intense, but at the same time, they've been productive," he said. Tharoor said that the trip revealed how much support they had from various countries, and it was much better than what they expected. "In many ways, it was revealing of the fact that we had so much support, so much solidarity expressed. Perhaps we expected a little more resistance or a little more scepticism. We got a tremendous amount of support and sympathy. Some more in private than in public, some also openly expressed, but on the whole, looking back on this, it's an excellent experience. The 8 members of the delegation are leaving feeling they have accomplished something for the nation," he said. The purpose of the visit is to brief key US stakeholders on Operation Sindoor, India's diplomatic effort launched to combat terrorism and disinformation following the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people and injured several others. (ANI)
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