NEW DELHI: Emphasising that India has been a victim of terrorism for decades, Congress MP and the leader of the all-party delegation Shashi Tharoor said that post-Pahalgam attacks, India has ushered in a new norm in dealing with cross-border terror sponsored by Pakistan.
In an interaction hosted by the Consulate General of India in New York with members of the Indian-American community and individuals from media and think-tanks, Tharoor said that India’s message to Pakistan has been clear: “We didn’t want to start anything”.
Tharoor is leading a delegation of MPs to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and the US, conveying India’s resolve against terrorism and emphasising Pakistan’s deep-rooted links to terrorism.
“We were just sending a message to terrorists. You started, we replied. If you stop, we stop. And they stopped. There was an 88-hour war. We look back on that with a great deal of frustration because it needn’t have happened at all. Lives have been lost. But at the same time, we look back on this experience with a steely and renewed determination,” he said.
“There is now got to be a new norm. No one sitting in Pakistan is going to be allowed to believe that they can just walk across the border and kill our citizens with impunity. There will be a price to pay, and that price has been going up systematically,” Tharoor said.
India has focused on a very different narrative from some of its neighbours. “Our focus for some years now has been on being the world’s fastest growing free markets democracy, attempting to focus on the development of our economy, our emphasis on technology and pulling large numbers of people from below the poverty line,” Tharoor said.
He highlighted the dastardly manner in which the tourists were singled out and targeted based on their religion, and the retaliatory measures taken by India through Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir through precision strikes. He also listed various terror attacks — from 26/11 to attacks in Uri and Pulwama — carried out in India by terror outfits backed by Pakistan.
“India is not interested, and we still remain absolutely clear, we are not interested in warfare with Pakistan. We would much rather be left alone to grow our economy and put our people into the world of the 21st century,” he said.
The delegation includes Sarfaraz Ahmad (JMM), Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi (TDP), Shashank Mani Tripathi (BJP), Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Tejasvi Surya (BJP), and India’s former Ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu.
The delegation visited the 9/11 memorial in New York to pay respects and convey India’s shared experience with the US in fighting terrorism. “We went to the Memorial of September 11 to send a message that New York also suffered due to the issue of terrorists twenty years ago, this is our experience as well. We want them to understand that solidarity is essential in this matter,” he said.
‘Ushered in a new norm’
Shashi Tharoor said that post-Pahalgam attacks, India has ushered in a new norm in dealing with cross-border terror sponsored by Pakistan.