Tharoor panel leaves for US, says will not be silenced by terror

India’s diplomatic outreach post Operation Sindoor continued on Saturday with an all-party delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor leaving for the United States and another led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda arriving in Bahrain.

Meanwhile, separate all-party delegations to Russia and Japan concluded their visits with “constructive meetings” with diplomatic leaderships discussing global fight against terror and India’s response to cross-border terrorism.

Before leaving for the US, Tharoor, who is leading a multi-party delegation to five countries, said the country would not be silenced by terrorism. “…we are going to speak about this horrendous crisis (Pahalgam attack) we were subjected to in which our country was attacked by terrorists in the cruellest possible way,” he said in a video message on X.

TMC MP tears into Pak

In Tokyo, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said if terrorism is a “rabid dog”, Pakistan is its “vile handler”, and the world must unite to tackle it. “We will not yield to fear. We have learnt to respond in a language that they understand,” he said during a fiery speech.

Tharoor-led panel also has BJP’s Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita and Tejasvi Surya, LJP’s (Ram Vilas) Shambhavi Choudhary, TDP’s GM Harish Balayogi, Shiv Sena’s Milind Deora, JMM’s Sarfaraz Ahmad and former Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

In Moscow, a delegation led by DMK MP K Kanimozhi concluded its visit after holding a wide-ranging discussion on counter-terrorism and briefing the “tried and tested” friend Russia on Operation Sindoor.

Russia reiterated its decisive commitment to “an uncompromising joint fight” with New Delhi against all forms of terrorism.

Kanimozhi described the Russia visit as a “great opportunity to explain our stand”. The delegation members had an interaction with former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov, who heads the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies. The Indian delegation also met with an all-party delegation of the Russian Federation Assembly (Parliament) led by the Duma (lower house) International Affairs Committee Chair Leonid Slutsky. The Indian delegation is also scheduled to visit Greece, Latvia and Spain.

Another all-party delegation led by Sanjay Kumar Jha concluded its visit to Japan and boarded a flight to next halt, South Korea.The delegation met Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga. Both the leaders conveyed their heartfelt condolences to the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and firmly condemned terrorism in all its forms. The delegation also met senior political leaders, including former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

India