Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in Washington DC on Wednesday.
The US has clearly understood India's position that there can be no dialogue with Pakistan with a "gun pointed at our head", Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said.
Mr Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the US to brief key stakeholders on Operation Sindoor, also dismissed Washington's claims that its trade diplomacy played a major role in averting a conflict between India and Pakistan.
He was speaking at an interaction session at the National Press Club in the US on Wednesday when he made the remarks.
"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. It's not that we can't talk to Pakistan. I was joking the other day, we can speak all the languages they can speak and we're very happy to dialogue with them in any of those languages," the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram said when asked about Washington's role in encouraging talks between India and Pakistan.
"The problem is we will not dialogue with people who are pointing a gun at our heads," he added.
#WATCH | Washington DC | "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… pic.twitter.com/iEJStb0Ic4
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2025
Mr Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, explained that "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 them 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," he said.
India has repeatedly said that any engagement with Pakistan will have to be "bilateral". It has also said that it will not engage with its neighbour on issues such as trade or the Indus Waters Treaty as long as the latter supports cross-border terrorism.
On India's expectations from the ongoing US visit, Mr Tharoor said: "We aren't really here to negotiate outcomes. That's the job of the government. Our job is to enhance understanding, to clarify our position and to explain if there are any questions or misapprehensions on the part of our interlocutors, we'd be very happy to address them."
"We're just saying, this is our position, we want you to understand, and if you have any questions, we'll answer them, but that's it. We're not asking them to do anything other than to understand our point of view, to express their solidarity and to stand with us if it happens again. I mean, we have no illusions," he added.
#WATCH | Interacting with the Indian diaspora in Washington, DC, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says "...There's been a very wide, impressive cross-section of legislators who met us, spoken to us. I must say our purpose in coming was actually very simple. Lay out what we've been… pic.twitter.com/PfLBpSPHUF
— ANI (@ANI) June 5, 2025
The Congress leader said the delegation is not seeking anything specific from the US visit. "It's not that we've come here saying, would you do this for us? That's not what this is all about and that's true by the way in every country we've been to," he said.
Referring to India's attack on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor - carried out in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack - last month, the Congress leader said: "These buildings we've destroyed and the terror camps can be built again in six months, nine months, who knows? The problem is, if they think they can keep doing this to us, they've got another thing coming because we are not going to take it. If they hit us, we will hit them back."
He added that India wants the world to understand "not only what just happened, but what could happen again if Pakistan does not control these elements on its soil".
Terrific to see you again @RepRoKhanna! We are grateful for the strong support of the #IndiaCaucus in the House of Representatives! https://t.co/Zq3wNAVW6i
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 4, 2025
The Congress leader refuted US President Donald Trump's claims of preventing a possible war between India and Pakistan using trade.
"That's not the impression I have. It is a public record that there were calls coming from various foreign ministers to our foreign minister, to our national security advisor, and the US was amongst the most active in this regard and that Secretary Rubio spoke to his Indian counterpart, (S) Jaishankar....At one point, Mr Vance, the Vice President called our Prime Minister. So, there were a lot of calls being made and that's true also the foreign ministers of the UAE, of Saudi Arabia, France and so on. Many countries were concerned," he said.
"My understanding is that in none of these calls was trade ever mentioned, not one. And certainly our information is that from our side, we gave a consistent response which corresponds to what I've just said to all of you, that we are only taking retribution for a terrorist attack, we are not interested in prolonging this conflict," he added.
Great to meet you and your @SenateForeign colleagues, @SenMcCormickPA ! We greatly valued all of you finding the time for us on a busy day and expressing your solidarity with our fight against terrorism. We also appreciated your enthusiasm for greater and stronger cooperation… https://t.co/IcTZUeEByd
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 5, 2025
He stressed that India has the right to defend itself.
"If Pakistan hits us, we will head back because we have a right of self-defence. If Pakistan stops, we will stop. So we didn't need persuading to stop. And that message was given regularly to everybody else who called," he said, referring to the ceasefire on May 10, after four days of military engagement between the two sides.
"I knew that some of this was actually out on the Twitter timeline of our foreign minister. So, it was an open thing that we're talking to people and letting them know we're ready to call this off any time the others do. And the others were the ones who were prolonging it. Only Pakistan had one foot on the escalator ladder, not India. In every case they initiated, we retaliated," he said.
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