Tharoor in US Warns Pakistan: 'Terrorism Will Come at a Cost'

In a radically high-level diplomatic engagement in New Delhi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor relayed the strong message on behalf of India that Pakistan should not feel it can act against Indian nationals with impunity.

Addressing a select meeting arranged by the Consulate General of India, Tharoor declared that the position of India is unequivocal: cross-border terrorism won't be tolerated.

"There is now going to be a new norm. No one who is sitting in Pakistan is going to be permitted to think that they can simply walk across the border and murder our citizens with impunity. There will be a price to pay, and that price has been going up systematically," Tharoor stated at the session.

Tharoor leads an all-party delegation which is now traveling to countries along the American continents—Guyana, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, and the United States—under a diplomatic mission launched by the Indian government. The objective is to counter Pakistan's disinformation campaigns and its role in the promotion of terrorism, especially in view of the recent Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Part of the delegation's agenda, the MPs are also tabled India's view of Operation Sindoor, an anti-terror campaign introduced by Indian forces after the April 22 attack in Kashmir. Narrating the chronology of events leading to the operation, Tharoor explained that India had responded in self-defense.

"Whatever we did was just sending a message to terrorists. You initiated, we responded. If you cease, we cease. And they ceased. There was an 88-hour war. We look back at that with a lot of frustration because it didn't have to happen at all. Lives have been lost. But at the same time, we look back on this experience with a steely and renewed sense of purpose," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

Tharoor also highlighted the difference between India's ambitions and the behaviour of its neighbours. "Our target for quite a few years now has been to be the world's fastest expanding free markets democracy, trying to try and concentrate on economic development of our economy, our strong focus on technology and technological development and drawing huge numbers of people from under the poverty line not only into the 21st Century, but into the world and opportunities the 21st-century has," he clarified.

This diplomatic delegation consists of representatives from all corners of India's political spectrum. Joining Tharoor are MPs 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 U.S., Taranjit Sandhu. The delegation arrived in New York on Saturday and is set to travel to Guyana next, before returning to the U.S. on June 3.

With this effort, India aims not just to correct the narrative about terrorism and cross-border threats but also to highlight its intention towards development, democracy, and international partnerships.