Moving to rally global support for India’s war against terror emanating from Pakistan, members of the all-party delegations – three teams start their foreign visits Wednesday – will seek to dispel Pakistani misinformation on Operation Sindoor, expose Islamabad’s duplicity on countering terror, explain India’s stand on the Indus Waters Treaty and underline the country’s ‘new normal’ in response to cross-border terrorism.
Three delegations, headed by JDU’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde and DMK’s Kanimozhi, were briefed by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Tuesday. They were told that they will have back-to-back meetings with people from the government (Ministers, MPs and other lawmakers), think tanks, academics, journalists, civil society and others.
“Our ambassadors and missions abroad have already started working on lining up the meetings,” a delegation member said.
JDU’s Jha, who is heading the team visiting Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, said the key message to be conveyed to these countries is that “India has had enough”.
“Essentially, in the backdrop of the Pahalgam attacks, we are expected to convey to the countries that enough evidence has been given to Pakistan about terror attacks in India that emanated from their soil, but it has done nothing. We have given them DNA samples, call intercepts and so much material evidence. The entire international community knows how much evidence was shared with Pakistan following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Did Pakistan take any action against (attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief) Hafiz Saeed?” Jha told The Indian Express.
“The problem is when you try to give evidence to the perpetrator itself, naturally there is not going to be any action. Pakistan is not a normal country, even the civilian government there is run by the Army. Pakistan can no longer play the victim. We will convey to the countries we are visiting that India will now take action and Operation Sindoor is the new normal. The bottomline is ‘enough is enough’,” Jha said.
Following the briefing, Shinde told mediapersons: “Tomorrow, our group will leave for UAE and West Africa. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all seven delegations are leaving for different countries to put forward the stand of our country. The MEA did a country-wise briefing for all the groups today and gave anecdotes of previous terrorist attacks on India. This briefing will prove to be useful for our visits… We will sensitise other countries on what India has been facing at the hands of Pakistan and terror over the years… The MEA will provide dossiers to every group.”
BJD MP Sasmit Patra, who is part of Shinde’s team, told The Indian Express, “It was a very positive briefing where a good perspective was shared by the Foreign Secretary. Specific talking points and the list of delegates we will be meeting on the tour will be given to us later. But the idea is that we have to represent the interest of the country rising above party lines.”
Another member of the delegation said the MPs were asked to talk about the different terror attacks that have been carried out by groups based in Pakistan and how it has become a hub of terror.
“We will talk about Pahalgam and the Operation Sindoor that followed. We are supposed to give details of what we did since a lot of misinformation is being spread by Pakistan,” the delegation member said.
According to the member, many MPs asked questions about the Indus Waters Treaty and India’s stand on it.
“The Foreign Secretary clarified that the Indus decision was not a knee-jerk reaction and that India had already been working on the treaty. A lot has changed since the 1960s. The amount of water in the river system has decreased. Also, the Indus Waters Treaty was part of a goodwill gesture, but in the face of terrorism when that goodwill itself does not exist, then how can the treaty be sustained,” the member said.
Another member said the government gave a brief explanation of the sequence of events since the Pahalgam attack until the ceasefire announced earlier this month. “We were told to make it clear that during the ceasefire negotiations, there was no discussion with the US, that there was absolutely no conversation about trade and that it (the ceasefire) was done on a bilateral level between India and Pakistan,” the member said.
The delegations were also told why the countries assigned to them have been chosen and the geopolitical importance of selecting the countries where the delegations will go.
“The Foreign Secretary told us that out of the countries selected, 15 were (UN) Security Council members and five were going to become Security Council members,” a member said.
Another member of a delegation going to Southeast Asia said: “Whatever the government has said publicly so far, we were told about it in greater detail. We have to resonate that.”
“The members asked routine questions about who will speak first, how to reply to questions,” said a member after the briefing, adding, “We have been provided some reading material to go through before we set out on our assignments.”
