Centre draws up all-party delegations to spread Operation Sindoor message across the globe

Many opposition MPs have received calls from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, inviting them to be part of the delegations in “national interest.” Among the MPs the government is said to be in touch with are Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and Amar Singh, NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, TMC’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, DMK’s Kanimozhi; BJD’s Sasmit Patra, IUML’s E T Mohd Basheer, CPM’s John Brittas and BJP’s B J Panda and Anurag Thakur.

While Khurshid is a former External Affairs Minister, Tharoor heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs.

Talking to The Indian Express, Khurshid said he received a call from the government Thursday night and conveyed it to the Congress leadership, which will take a call. “It is an all-party effort. All party groups. So I imagine that the party will take care of it. They probably will get in touch with the party. I have conveyed to the party that I have received a message. It is the prerogative of the party who they send,” Khurshid said.

In a post on X, his party colleague Jairam Ramesh wrote, “The Prime Minister has refused to chair two all-party meetings on the Pahalgam terror attacks and Operation Sindoor. The Prime Minister has not agreed to call a special session of Parliament that the Indian National Congress has been demanding to demonstrate a collective will and reiterate the resolution passed unanimously by Parliament on February 22, 1994… Now suddenly the PM has decided to send multi-party delegations abroad to explain India’s stand on terrorism from Pakistan. The Indian National Congress always takes a position in the supreme national interest and never politicises national security issues like the BJP does. Hence, the INC will definitely be a part of these delegations.”

“Yesterday night I got a call from Mr Rijiju. He said several delegations are going to several countries to talk about Pakistan’s hand in terrorism in India (and) the background of the present situation. These delegations will leave around May 22-23 and return in the first week of June after visiting a few countries. I have not been sounded out where I am going, but I was told the MEA will get in touch with me,” one of the MPs, who did not wish to be identified, said. Another MP also said he had been contacted by the government but was awaiting details.

The government is planning to send special envoys to foreign countries to make a case about how India is united and what it suffered as a result of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. According to sources, the government is thinking of putting together separate groups, mainly drawing from parliamentary standing committees to begin with, who can effectively portray that India is united after coming under attack from Pakistan-sponsored terrorist organisations.

Sources said they will head to Europe and Gulf countries to begin with.

This is, in part, also to effectively communicate that India was attacked first, and it pushed back and gave a retaliatory response as it carried out strikes in nine terror locations across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Similar exercises have taken place in 1994 and again in 2008, after the attacks on India from Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups and networks.

The idea is to send five-six delegations to various countries to explain New Delhi’s position on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, giving details of the Pahalgam terror attack and other acts of terror committed against India, Operation Sindoor, and the diplomatic initiatives taken by the government against Pakistan.

The move is reminiscent of the P V Narasimha Rao government’s decision to send a delegation headed by then opposition leader A B Vajpayee to attend a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, where a Pakistan-sponsored resolution to censure India on its record of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir was successfully thwarted.

The move is also significant from a domestic political point of view, since it comes at a time when the Congress is attacking the government over the role played by the US in bringing about a truce between India and Pakistan. Accusing the BJP of politicising Operation Sindoor — BJP leaders have been participating in Tiranga rallies — the Congress has also decided to take out Jai Hind rallies in a dozen cities. The Congress has also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to convene a meeting of NDA chief ministers to brief them about Operation Sindoor, asking why only NDA chief ministers and not all chief ministers were called.