Despite reluctance and reservation on the part of the Congress party, Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP, agreed to lead one of the seven delegations sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP-led NDA Government to 32 countries to explain about the “Operation Sindoor.” The delegation five was led by Shashi Tharoor will visit USA, Panama, Guyana, Colombia and Brazil.

The delegation of other political parties was led by their respective leaders without much controversy. It was only with Shashi Tharoor, the Congress High Command has issue — for whatever reason. Which is why I likened acceptance by Shashi Tharoor to lead the delegation as crossing the Rubicon. Remember Julius Caesar, though asked not to cross the Rubicon River and come to Rome, he defied the Senate and Pompey, one of the Triumvirates, as we find in the Congress party (you know them) and marched into Rome triumphantly?

I am sure Shashi Tharoor too will return to Delhi with his delegation triumphantly after presenting India’s case abroad. This confidence comes from what I saw and heard online about Shashi Tharoor addressing the press in Colombia. What a flow and presentation of the sequence of events that led to ‘Operation Sindoor’! Wondered if the leaders of other teams too are as good as Tharoor.

Here is excerpts of what Tharoor spoke in Colombia, which is self-explanatory:

I have to say that we were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian Government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism. There can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resisted them.

We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence.

And if there is any misunderstanding here on this call, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We are very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances. We have, as I said, very concrete proof.

In fact, when this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The                              Resistance Front  (TRF)…

Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades. Frankly, it is now very well established that Pakistan has been breeding the monsters of terrorism for a very long time for their own purposes.

We all know that when Osama bin Laden was being hunted around the world, it was Pakistan that gave him shelter… The Americans found him in a safe house near an army base in a cantonment city…

And for this reason, we would like the Government and people of Colombia to understand that there should be no equivalence. Lives lost, maybe lives lost, but the lives lost in India were those of tourists, of civilians, of nuns, of worshippers, of ordinary people. The lives that were lost in Pakistan were the lives of terrorists, well-known terrorists.

There was also, I would say my friend, an intention on the part of the terrorists to provoke a negative reaction in India against our brothers and sisters from the Muslim community. The terrorists specifically asked if people were Hindu or non-Muslim before shooting them dead. There were 25 Hindus, one of them from Nepal and one Christian who was shot dead.

In addition, of course, the shells killed Sikhs and Christians as well, but I say this to you that India very proudly stayed united. We stayed as one voice.

After this address by Shashi Tharoor, other members of the team too spoke on other bilateral issues like trade etc. Thereafter, Shashi Tharoor fielded questions from the audience.

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