Govt to Send Multi-Party Delegations Abroad for Outreach on India’s Position on Terror, Conflict with Pak
New Delhi: The Union government has reached out to opposition parties to send multi-party delegations abroad in a diplomatic outreach programme to communicate India’s stand on terrorism following the Pahalgam terror attack last month and on the heels of the military conflict with Pakistan last week, The Wire has learnt.
Sources said to The Wire that opposition parties including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Trinamool Congress have been sounded out by the Union government to be part of multi-party delegations that will be sent in at least five or six groups to different world capitals countries to put forth India’s point of view following the military conflict last week.
These groups will go to different countries starting next week.
The Congress in a statement has confirmed that it has received an invitation from the Union government and said that the party “always takes a position in the supreme national interest and never politicises national security issues” and will be a part of these delegations.
“The prime minister has refused to chair two all-party meetings on the Pahalgam terror attack 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,” said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
“The prime minister and his party have been defaming the Indian National Congress continuously even as it has called for unity and solidarity. 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.”
Opposition parties have demanded a special session of parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack as well as Operation Sindoor to demonstrate collective resolve. The government has not yet heeded such calls.
An opposition MP said to The Wire that “it is difficult to refuse such an invitation since national interest and national security is involved”.
The move comes amid US President Donald Trump’s continued claims of having mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan that brought an end to the four-day long military standoff following Operation Sindoor, which has been questioned by opposition parties.
Operation Sindoor saw Indian military forces launching strikes on nine targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7. This was followed by four tense days that saw missiles and drone strikes that ended on May 10 with Trump announcing a ceasefire which he claimed to have mediated.
The Ministry of External Affairs on May 13 publicly asserted that the decision to halt hostilities followed Indian military action that compelled Pakistan to stand down, but did not respond to questions on whether India had lodged protests over Trump’s remarks about using trade as leverage, his suggestion of mediating on Kashmir or his references to the nuclear dimension of the conflict.
Similar trips to communicate India’s point of view abroad have been made under previous governments.
In 1994, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao sent leader of opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid and other leaders to put forward India’s case at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, where a Pakistan-sponsored resolution that sought to censure India on human rights in Jammu and Kashmir was defeated.
This report has been edited since publication to remove a 2008 reference which is unconfirmed.
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