Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday launched a “peace mission” with an all-party delegation of MPs to proclaim “the message that we will not be silenced by terrorism.”
“Carrying forth to the world India’s strong message of zero-tolerance against terrorism! All-Party Delegation, led by Dr. Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor, welcomed by Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra @AmbVMKwatra in New York. #NeverForgetNeverForgive #OpSindoor,” the Indian Embassy said in a statement on X.
The eight MPs, along with Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the former Indian Ambassador to the US, arrived in New York as the starting leg of their mission across the Americas, including the Caribbean.
They began the tour with a visit to the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center to pay tribute to the victims of the deadliest terror attack on the US. They will also meet members of the Indian diaspora during their visit.
The delegation will subsequently travel to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, before returning to the US for meetings with leaders, lawmakers, and opinion-makers.
Before leaving from India, Tharoor said, “The reason we are going is to speak for the nation, to speak about this horrendous crisis we were subjected to, in which our country was attacked by terrorists in the cruelest possible way.”
“We need to speak up with clarity and conviction for our country, for our response, and to give the world the message that we will not be silenced by terrorism,” he added.
In a demonstration of national unity against terrorism, the team includes MPs from across party lines. Alongside Tharoor from the Congress Party are Shambhavi of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Sarfaraz Ahmad of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Milind Murli Deora of the Shiv Sena. Other members include Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, and Tejasvi Surya of the BJP, as well as GM Harish Balayogi of the Telugu Desam Party, a National Democratic Alliance partner.
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which had links to Pakistan, killed 2,731 people. Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda which orchestrated the attack, was sheltered by the Pakistani government before being killed in Abbottabad by the US Navy’s elite SEALs unit.
Colombia, a nation long afflicted by terrorism, is expected to resonate with the delegation’s anti-terrorism message.
“It’s a mission that will one day remind the world that India stands for all the values we need to preserve today—peace, democracy, freedom—not hatred, not killing, and not terror,” Tharoor said.
—IANS