"Can't Breed Vipers...": Shashi Tharoor Slams Pakistan's US Outreach
Even as Pakistan's delegation, seeking to put its point across after India's action against terror during Op Sindoor, arrived in Washington on Wednesday, India's outreach delegation, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor decimated Pakistan's copycat outreach effort.
"This (Pakistan) delegation is going around saying we are also victims of terrorism; we have lost more lives to terrorism than India has. We turn around and say- Whose fault is that? As Hillary Clinton famously said 10 years ago. You can't breed vipers in your backyard and expect them to bite only your neighbours...That's why they (Pakistan) are now getting terrorists attacked by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, but who created the Taliban from which the Tehrik-i-Taliban broke off? We all know the answer to that, so let Pakistan look inside it and let it do some serious interior reflection before it goes around pleading innocence and deniability and everything else."
Echoing the stand delegation member and BJP MP Tejasvi Surya hit out at the irony of Pakistan's delegation calling itself the delegation of peace.
"Bhutto has been calling his delegation a peace delegation, and it is quite ironic that the Pakistani delegation is speaking the language of peace. It's like the Devil quoting from the scriptures. For a country that is trying to create fake heroes by promoting failed generals to field marshal, they don't know what true leaders look like. Pakistan has been surviving on cheap Chinese imports, including military hardware, which spectacularly failed on the battlefield. So perhaps it is hard for them to digest high-quality, high-calibre military hardware as well as strong democratic leadership on the other side of the border," Mr Surya said.
Earlier, under pressure Biawal Bhutto made an impassioned call for peace at the UN Headquarters in New York and even called for joint intelligence sharing on terrorism. A theory completely rejected by the Indian side.
"I think the US has understood for some time now that India has a very clear position that there will be no talks with a gun pointed at our head... The problem is that we will not deal with people who are pointing a gun at our heads. I mean frankly, if your neighbour unleashes his Rottweilers* to bite your children and in fact to do worse to your children, and then says, let's talk. You think he's going to talk to him until he either unleashes those Rottweilers* or locks them up in a kennel or puts them to sleep. It's as simple as that. You're not going to talk to people who are pointing guns at your temples. It's not going to happen," said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
"India does not seek war. We have never sought war in our civilisation's history... But that doesn't mean that we will remain passive in the face of Adharma. If there is cessation of aggression, you will have peace, but if you attack us not once, but we are ready to do 100 Operation Sindoor," said BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.
India already has the upper hand as the two delegations come face to face in the US. On Wednesday, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast endorsed India's action against terror.
"The world was holding its breath, watching what had taken place, both in disgust and also in anticipation of the response. When you are attacked, you have no choice but to respond. The world does not allow anything else, and those responses needed to take place. We have a great friendship and partnership between our nations, and we see nothing but growth and expansion in the future," he said.
Pakistan is clearly on the back foot as India presents a strong case for itself. A sign of that came on Wednesday when Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif again urged US President Trump to facilitate talks with India. India's stance is clear: if there are to be talks, they will only be on terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Pakistan's illegal occupation of part of Jammu and Kashmir.
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