Being his usual articulate self, Shashi Tharoor delivered an iron-clad, evidence-led speech as part of New Delhi’s terror outreach delegation in New York.
Speaking at the Indian consulate in New York, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, armed with the history of Pakistan’s incursions, slammed Islamabad’s “revisionist” agenda, and justified India’s military action Operation Sindoor as “precisely calculated, calibrated strikes”.
India’s ‘new normal’ response after 2015
Tharoor explained how Pakistani incursions masqueraded as terrorism and how India has gradually ramped up its military response with each attack since 2015. “You may not remember, since this is our problem, not yours, that there was an attack on an Indian air base called Pathankot and our PM had just made a goodwill visit to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif the previous month,” he said.
Tharoor threw light on when Pakistani investigators came to the Pathankot base after being invited to join the Indian probe, “but they went back to Pakistan and said the Indians did this to themselves. That was the last stroke for us.”
Mumbai terror attacks 2008
The MP also looked back at the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and underscored how Islamabad failed to make amends in the past decade. “2015 was the last opportunity for Pakistan to be serious about tackling terrorism, to behave,” Tharoor remarks.
He also referred to Uri in 2016, following which the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes on known terror camps belonging to internationally banned groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and LeT. In 2019, India struck terror camps in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama tragedy, which had claimed the lives of 40 soldiers.
With the timeline of events, Tharoor emphasised that India is determined and there is a new bottomline to Pakistan’s attacks. “You do this, you’re gonna get this back,” he said.
Story of India’s growth and Kashmir’s prosperity
Tharoor pointed out that India has been focused for a few years on being the world’s fastest-growing, free-market democracy and emphasised on development and technological progress for its people.
With a subtle dig at Pakistan, he added, “Unfortunately, we had not braced ourselves sufficiently for certain malign influences in our neighbourhood did not want that story, that narrative to be told, in an uninterrupted manner.”
Citing Kashmir’s burgeoning tourist footfall, both domestic and international, Tharoor claimed that the Pahalgam attack was orchestrated to derail the narrative of development and “process of normalisation”.
Common ground
Tharoor tactfully brought out the similarity between the US and India in their struggle against terrorism. The Indian delegation made their first stop at the 9/11 memorial not only to pay their respects, but also to send a reminder that terrorism is a “shared problem.”
“We are here in a city that still bears scars of a savage terrorist attack,” Tharoor said, noting how both US and India had been victims of similar horrors, although India has suffered far more terrorist attacks. He said, "Terrorism is a global problem, a scourge, and we all must fight it unitedly.”
Tharoor’s address was not merely a diplomatic outreach—it was a carefully structured message. Blending historical context with present-day urgency, he positioned India’s military responses as rational, restrained and firmly rooted in self-defense. With Operation Sindoor, he suggested, India has drawn a clear line: aggression will be met with resolve, and peace will not be held hostage by terror.