Shedding Victimhood

THE JOURNEY FROM India to Panama, recently in the news for US President Donald Trump’s claims about the famous canal connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, requires a change at an American airport. A parliamentary delegation led by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor utilised a halt in New York to visit the 9/11 memorial, meet think-tanks and academia and inter­act with the media. The delegation consisting mostly of MPs con­veyed the pain and outrage India felt after Pakistan-backed terrorists shot dead male tourists at Pahalgam on April 22 after segregating them on the basis of religion and called for strong and sustained global action against terrorism.

The delegation, which is due to return to Washington DC to meet members of America’s political establishment, travelled to Panama where Tharoor explained what the “new normal” posited by Prime Min­ister Narendra Modi means in terms of India’s response to terrorism. “We will not accept any more the constant outrages of terrorism inflicted on us. We have suf­fered attack after attack for almost four decades… Most of you will recall the hor­rors of Mumbai 2008… Sadly, Pakistan has chosen a policy of enabling terror, creat­ing terrorist organisations, financing and training them. Now we have hit the Pun­jabi heartland of Pakistan, hitting terror bases. This is going to be the new normal,” Tharoor told a well-attended meeting. The bottomline that India has discarded self-imposed shackles, elevated to doctrinal level by a high-sounding term called ‘strategic restraint’, is being conveyed by seven all-party delegations that have fanned out to destinations across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and West Asia.

The objective of the delegations, said an official familiar with the visits, is to effectively convey the complicity of the Pakistani state in terrorism against India and the country’s links to major terror incidents all over the world. The delegations are not mere symbolism but an emphatic statement of India’s resolve to punish terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen and their patron Pakistan. The del­egation is conveying India’s fruitless efforts to seek peace with Pakistan and the latter’s continued violation of all norms of good neighbourly behaviour, such as the principles of mutual trust and cooperation set out in the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), the opera­tion of which was suspended after the Pahalgam outrage. Detailed meetings scheduled by Indian missions saw MPs put across a nu­anced but firm message that while India is not a warmongering nation, the selection of the initial Operation Sindoor targets were precision strikes on terrorist bases and reflected a non-escalatory intent. The MPs did not hesitate in defending the Modi govern­ment’s action in first hitting terror camps and then striking Pakistani military bases with the same precision. The Indian assessment was that the Pakistani military failed to an­ticipate the reaction to Pahalgam and its discomfiture deepened as counter­attacks did not succeed. The Pakistan army’s anticipation of likely cross-Line of Control (LoC) raids or a Balakot-style operation were belied. The missile hits on the Jaish headquarters at Bahawalpur and the Lashkar nerve centre at Muridke could not be denied or covered up.

The consensus represented by the composition of the parliamentary delegations was important as senior Congress leaders like Tharoor and Manish Tewari were unambiguous about India’s right to defence against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Although Congress spokespersons back in India struck contrarian notes, claiming the parliamentary delegations were an effort to boost the government’s sagging image, the MPs uniformly backed the aims and methods of Operation Sindoor. While seven delega­tions—led by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Baijayant Panda and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Janata Dal (United)’s Sanjay Jha, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) Kanimozhi, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Supriya Sule, besides Tharoor—went about their work, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar of “tipping off” Pakistan ahead of the May 9 attacks and suggested this might have led to the downing of Indian jets.

The global outreach served to amplify, in the softer tones of dip­lomatic articulation, Modi’s strongly worded warnings to Pakistan at public meetings in India. Leaving no room for misinterpretation, Modi called on Pakistanis to consider the benefits of peace, growth and pursuing livelihoods, while cautioning that the alternative would be Indian bullets. In other words, give up revisionist fantasies like wresting Kashmir from India. Political messaging sometimes requires the broad strokes the prime minister used but Modi also underlined that his actions are not reckless. “Modi’s mind is cool, it will remain cool,” he told a rally in Bikaner on May 23 while adding that his blood runs hot. In a televised address on May 12, he said the terror at Pahalgam had been very painful at a personal level. In hitting the hard notes on Pakistan, Modi countered Congress’ allega­tions, referring to the IWT’s “one-sided” terms that disadvantaged India. “It was like arms being cut off,” he said.

At a first glance, some of the destinations appear puzzling, but the countries chosen are either current members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) or are likely to become mem­bers. Indian diplomats are factoring in Pakistan’s presence as a non-permanent member with its term due to end only at the end of 2026. Keen to ensure the UNSC fully understands India’s rea­sons, compulsions and sees its actions as a measured response to repeated acts of terror, Panama, Guyana, Slovenia, Greece and South Korea are among the nations visited by the delegations apart from others like the Russian Federation, Italy, and Brazil. Jaishankar has been busy travelling to Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands while receiving dignitaries from Paraguay and the Maldives. The interactions with European nations are crucial—though they are appreciative of India’s concerns about terrorism— since there have been differences on issues like the war in Ukraine and relations with Russia. These nations particularly need to be assured that while India does not take nuclear weapons lightly and is a responsible power, Pakistan’s loose and frequent references to weapons of mass destruction need to be condemned. The Indian policy of no-first-use is well established while Pakistan’s red lines are deliberately vague. Its policy of promoting terrorism under the umbrella of a nuclear threat is unacceptable, Jaishankar has emphasised, while explaining India will not hesitate to use hard power if subjected to terrorism. Jaishankar spent some time meeting leaders in the new German government and spoke in public to put across India’s choices before a wider audience.

The meetings and interactions of the delegation led by Panda to Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait were important as they come on the back of multiple visits by Modi to the Gulf. India has forged signifi­cant relations with the Gulf and Saudi Arabia that have resulted in these countries being less inclined to heed Pakistan’s invocations of Islamic unity and claims that the Modi government follows a majoritarian agenda at home. Cultural, economic and strategic cooperation has progressed and the Indian Navy’s anti-piracy role in the Indian Ocean brings home the country’s value as a partner. The parliamentary team was accorded a cordial reception. “A spe­cial Diwaniya-style interaction, co-hosted with the Kuwait-based think tank Reconnaissance Research, was held… The event brought together leading voices from Kuwaiti civil society including mem­bers of the royal family, former ministers, senior editors, think-tank experts, opinion leaders and influencers. While touching upon the strong India-Kuwait strategic partnership, the discussions focused on the recent situation in the Indian sub-continent and India’s ‘New Normal’ approach to dealing with such incidents of cross-border terrorism. The participants were unanimous in their view that ter­rorism is against humanity and needs to be countered in all possible ways,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said.

THE VISITS AND interactions reflect the view in the Indian government that setting the right narrative and presenting facts and arguments are more crucial in the era of social media and fake news than ever before. India was seen to be lagging in the aftermath of the May 9 strikes on nine terror centres in Pakistan as claims of Indian jets being downed and utili­ties in various cities being crippled by Pakistani cyber attacks did the rounds. On the other hand, highly speculative and incorrect claims on some Indian television channels about Indian attacks on Karachi port proved overcooked and required clarifications. But the joint briefings of the defence ministry represented by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh along with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri provided precise accounts of Indi­an actions and responses to Pakistani aggression and carried a ring of credibility. India did not downplay Pakistan’s attempts to breach its defences and listed dozens of locations targeted by the Pakistani military. The Indian missile and drone attacks on the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) airfields and radar installations were acknowledged and soon established by foreign-based OSINT (open-source intel­ligence) experts and satellite imagery firms. Indian startups like Kawa Space and Kepler, too, put up images of damaged Pakistani bases and subsequent imagery not only further established Indian claims but revised upwards the initial estimates of the damage. Days after the Indian strikes, PAF bases revealed ongoing efforts to repair cratered runways, buildings and hangers, and clear debris.

The task for Tharoor and the MPs accompanying him when they reach Washington DC will be challenging. Trump has re­peatedly claimed to have “mediated” a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and said he held out the benefits of trade with both countries. The US did speak to New Delhi and Islamabad and Sec­retary of State Marco Rubio got on the line to General Asim Munir too. But it is evident that the Pakistan army’s director general of military operations (DGMO) called his Indian counterpart and not the other way round—something even Islamabad has not denied. The US ‘pressure’ narrative could help Pakistan explain the ceasefire to public opinion at home but Indian officials and Jaishankar have ruled out any plan for talks on any subject other than terrorism and the return of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Claims of any trade carrot being dangled are strange and reports of Trump family-backed company World Liberty Finan­cial signing a deal with the newly minted Pakistan Crypto Council has certainly muddied the waters. Tharoor has the finesse to step around these landmines and stay on message with the assistance of Taranjit Sandhu, former Indian ambassador to the US whom the MEA has thoughtfully seconded to the delegation.

The prime minister’s forceful advocacy of India’s military action against Pakistan does not leave either the Shehbaz Sharif government or the Pakistan military much room to even claim a draw in the May 7-10 hostilities or ignore Modi’s threat to use force again. Modi’s tough talk draws on the vastly improved military capacities of the Indian armed forces and reflects confidence in India’s ability to land punishing blows on Pakistan’s deep state while countering the enemy’s counter strikes. The prime min­ister is not keen to provide Pakistan any face saver and spares no punches in outlining what the new normal against terrorism means. It is a message Pakistan can miss only at its peril and is for the rest of the world to internalise.

BJP MP Baijayant PandaCongress MP Shashi TharoordiplomacyJD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar JhaNarendra ModiOperation SindoorOutreach