Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, currently heading a high-level multi-party delegation to five nations, delivered a sharp rebuke to the Colombian government, expressing clear dismay over the country’s condolence message for Pakistani casualties following India’s Operation Sindoor. Tharoor has reminded that there can be “no moral equivalence” between terrorists and those defending their homeland.
“We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism,” Tharoor stated firmly while addressing media representatives in Colombia.
Pressing the point further, he declared, “We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding.”
India’s military action, he insisted, was a lawful and necessary act of self-defence in response to a brutal terrorist assault in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, perpetrated by The Resistance Front—an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
“We’re very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances. Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades,” Tharoor said, drawing parallels between the two nations’ long-standing struggles against terrorism.
Tharoor added that clarity and understanding from international partners are not merely desirable, but essential. “We are here looking for understanding… We have the impression that perhaps the situation was not fully understood when that one statement (Colombia extending condolences for deaths in Pakistan after Indian strikes on terror hotbeds) was made. Understanding is extremely important for us. We are a country which has really been a force for constructive progress in the world,” he stressed.
The Congress leader also called upon the global community to reject any tacit support for terrorism. “We certainly hope that other governments will tell those who give safe haven and protection to terrorists to stop doing so. That would be very helpful indeed, as well in the Security Council or outside it,” he added.
Addressing speculation surrounding third-party mediation in the aftermath of the strikes, Tharoor was unequivocal in dismissing the notion. “Certainly there was no sort of active process of mediation that we are aware of. Certainly nothing involving us, because we never intended to begin with from the very first day when the anti-terror strikes took place on the night of May 7. We are not the belligerent power in this particular equation.”
Tharoor also revealed that while several key international actors—including senior officials from the United States, France, UAE, and Saudi Arabia—reached out amid the tensions, India’s message remained consistent and resolute: “We received a number of phone calls from senior United States officials and also from senior officials of other countries (France, UAE, Saudi Arabia). And the message we gave to all these countries was exactly the same. We are not interested in war. We were just doing retribution for a terrorist attack. If they stop, we stop,” he said.
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