In this exclusive interview with Sreenivasan Jain, Congress MP and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor discusses the aftermath of Operation Sindoor and the brief but intense military confrontation between India and Pakistan.
Deflecting questions on the efficacy of such operations as a long term response to terror, Tharoor says, “Operation Sindoor was not about trying to settle any larger issues with Pakistan. It was purely a retaliation for Pahalgam. The message is you just cannot send terrorists across the border to kill our innocent civilians and go away with impunity. We will hit you. After Uri, you cross the LoC, after Pulwama, you cross the IB, the international border and hit Balakot. After this, you went into the heartland of Punjab. You hit Bahawalpur and Muridke. But you did so in a very carefully calculated, precise manner. I'm told by experts that they even targeted individual buildings within the LET complex and the Hizbul…and the Jaish-e-Muhammad complex. ”
He insists – “You are dismantling the infrastructure from which the terrorists have come. Where the terrorists are trained, where they are guided, where they are instructed, armed, equipped, financed. So hitting that infrastructure sends a powerful message in itself.”
The interview addresses Donald Trump’s claims of mediating the ceasefire, which Tharoor dismisses: “To the best of my knowledge, we have agreed to no such thing. No talks are mediated by the Americans with the Pakistanis...No Indian would agree to give Pakistan the great prize of talks while they’ve been pointing a gun at our heads.”
Asked about attempts to politicise national security matters by the BJP as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tharoor offers a blanket response “This is not the time to do this kind of stuff. I mean petty political point scoring is something which all parties will do and it suits them too. When there is an election I’m sure that they will try and use all of this. To be honest right now there is no particular justification. And using a moment of national crisis, they do petty point scoring against your political opponents. It applies to them, it applies to us.”
On media freedom during tensions and the mass suspension of X accounts, Tharoor says, “I think it’s unfortunate. I think one of the things that distinguishes us from our enemies is that we should be and we are a land where there is a free interplay of a variety of voices.”