All-party delegation led by Ravi Shankar Prasad arrives in France to convey India's stance against terrorism
Paris [France], May 26 (ANI): The seventh group of an all-party delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad arrived in France, the Embassy of India shared the details in a post on X.
The Embassy noted in a post on X, 'An All Party 9-member delegation of eminent Parliamentarians and a distinguished former diplomat, led by @rsprasad, arrived in Paris today to convey India's strong and clear stance against terrorism.'
https://x.com/IndiaembFrance/status/1926711226639269926
The Members of Parliament will visit France, the UK, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark.
In a diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, the Modi government has formed seven multi-party delegations to inform nations about Pakistan's links to terrorism, and India's strong message of zero-tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
The delegation, led by Ravi Shankar Prasad, includes BJP MPs Daggubati Purandeswari, M J Akbar, Ghulam Ali Khatana and Samik Bhattacharya; Amar Singh from Congress MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena (UBT) and former diplomat Pankaj Saran.
The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in France, UK, Germany, EU, Italy and Denmark.
Earlier in the day, Ravi Shankar Prasad emphasised that India believes in peace and harmony, but will take strong action against terrorism. He highlighted that the security of every Indian citizen is the government's top priority. He added that terrorism is a global issue, with Pakistan being a major hub of terrorist activities.
Speaking to ANI, Prasad said, 'I am going to present India's strong side in European countries. Together, we will say only two things effectively- we believe in peace and harmony but if there is a terrorist attack on Indians from across the border, then there will be Operation Sindoor. The security of every Indian citizen is the responsibility of this government and today terrorism is a cancer which is troubling the whole world, a big center of which is Pakistan...'
Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pak-sponsored terrorists in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. (ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
18 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Ludhiana West bypoll: All eyes on how BJP factor will play out in this urban constituency of Punjab
With just two days to go before the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll on June 19, all eyes are on how the BJP factor will play out in this urban constituency of Punjab, where voters largely come from elite, educated, and financially sound backgrounds. The primary contest is expected to be between Congress's Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a former minister and two-term MLA, and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Sanjeev Arora, an industrialist and member of the Rajya Sabha. However, attention is focused on how the votes cast for BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta will impact both the Congress and the AAP. Since its establishment in 1977, the Ludhiana West assembly constituency has never been won by the BJP, even in independent contests or in alliances with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Out of the ten elections held in this period, the Congress won six times, the BJP's former ally SAD claimed two victories, and the erstwhile Janata Party won once. After the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab ended over the three farm laws in 2020, the BJP contested the 2022 Assembly elections independently from Ludhiana West, with its candidate, Bikram Singh Sidhu, coming third with 23.95 per cent of the votes, and the AAP's Gurpreet Gogi winning. However, in this urban seat, dominated by the upmarket Hindu business community, industrialists and traders, along with scientists/professors from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), the BJP has made significant gains in the past year or so. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, former Congress Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu shifted to the BJP and contested on the party's ticket. Although he lost the election to the Congress's Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the BJP led from the Ludhiana West segment, polling 45,000 votes, which was 15,000 more than the Congress received. The ruling AAP was pushed to third and polled just around 22,000 votes from Ludhiana West. The BJP claimed a lead in 66 of the 95 urban wards of Ludhiana in the Lok Sabha polls. Overall, AAP candidate Ashok Parshar Pappi finished a distant third with the ruling party's vote bank dipping below that of the BJP. Pappi blamed the defeat on the BJP's 'Ram Mandir' pitch. AAP had failed to lead from any of the six urban Assembly segments of Ludhiana, while five went to the BJP and one to the Congress. Despite the loss, PM Narendra Modi made Bittu the Union Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing, which he says 'was due to Modi's love for Punjab'. Then, in the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections, the ruling AAP suffered a major setback, as it failed to reach the majority mark to appoint its mayor. Of the 95 urban wards, the AAP won 41 (seven short of a majority), the Congress 30, the BJP 19, and the SAD 2. For the first-ever bypoll in Ludhiana West, necessitated by the passing of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi, the SAD is the only party that has fielded a Sikh face: advocate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, known for fighting legal battles for underprivileged people pro bono. Political experts believe that while a victory for the BJP in the Ludhiana West bypoll may seem unlikely, the party is expected to impact the vote share of both the Congress and AAP. It remains to be seen which party will be affected more significantly. 'The BJP candidate, Jiwan Gupta, started late. His nomination was announced just a day ahead of the last day of nominations, but even then, their campaign has blossomed over the past week. Several leaders in the BJP, including state president Sunil Jakhar, Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, and Union ministers Hardeep Puri and Anurag Thakur, came to campaign for him. The BJP might not be winning the seat, but they are going to severely dent our and the AAP's vote bank,' said a senior Congress leader. The AAP was the first to announce Arora as a candidate in February itself, followed by the Congress's Ashu. The AAP was also the first to start campaigning with its national convener Kejriwal and Punjab CM Mann hitting the ground in Ludhiana in March itself. A local resident said that 'financially well-to-do' people of Ludhiana city don't have much to do with CM Mann's populist schemes, such as free power and atta dal; rather, they are highly upset over erratic power supply and long power cuts that the city has been facing this summer. 'This is a major worry for the AAP. It has been over a month now that the CM is regularly staying at a five-star facility in Ludhiana, and the entire city faces massive traffic jams due to his security cover. Inside houses, there is no power, and outside, there are major traffic snarls. Unlike previous CMs, he never stays in government guest houses. But this party had promised to end VVIP culture,' said the resident. While the Ram Mandir was a key issue in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, this time it could be Operation Sindoor, which could hurt the AAP in Ludhiana, said another local resident. 'CM Mann mocking 'Sindoor' has not gone down well with the urban Hindu women in Ludhiana. The anti-incumbency against the AAP can favour both the BJP and the Congress. And even the SAD can improve this time,' said the resident. However, what remains in the AAP's favour is the advantage of being the ruling party, the power of administrative machinery, and the announcement by Kejriwal that if Arora is elected, he will be elevated as a Cabinet minister. Kejriwal has even announced that if any other party's MLA is elected, it 'will be difficult for him to get development works done in the constituency' as he 'won't have any power or money sans AAP government's support'. Since being declared a candidate, Arora has been portrayed as the face of AAP Ludhiana, leading inaugurations and laying the foundation stone for major projects. The AAP has also built its campaign around Congress candidate Ashu's behavioural traits —gussa (anger) and ahankaar (arrogance), a charge that Ashu has denied. But what the Opposition has accused the AAP of is 'plotting Kejriwal's backdoor entry into Rajya Sabha' by making Arora contest from Ludhiana. 'He is not campaigning for Arora, but his own entry into the Rajya Sabha. Arora is merely a pawn,' said a leaver, asking people not to vote for Kejriwal, 'who has been rejected by the people of Delhi'. However, both the Congress and the BJP have already announced that the bypoll would be a 'trailer' for 2027 Punjab Assembly polls, as they claim that 'people are waiting to throw out the AAP' and 'winds of change will blow from Ludhiana'. While the AAP's campaign so far has been led by its well-known faces, such as Kejriwal, Mann, Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, former Delhi CM Atishi, and Mann's wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, among others, the Congress is relying mostly on its local leadership. Thanks to the wide-open rift between candidate Ashu and state Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the latter had been conducting his own separate meetings and press conferences, although he accompanied Ashu on nomination day. Rather, Ashu has been relying on former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh, and Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh to lead his campaign. 'While till now, everyone is assuming numbers 1 and 2 to be between the Congress and the AAP, it will not be a surprise if the BJP ends up second,' said a local BJP leader. In 1980, when the SAD and the BJP were not allies, the BJP's Vishwa Nath had stood third with 21.49 per cent votes. In 1985, the BJP's Inderjit Singh again stood third with 8.86 per cent of the votes, and in 1992, the saffron party's Kailash Sharma finished second with 31.82 per cent of the votes. In 1997, after the SAD-BJP alliance was formed, the SAD's Maheshinder Singh Grewal won the seat. However, in 2002, the SAD's Avtar Singh Makkar lost to the Congress. In 2007, the SAD's Harish Rai Dhanda won. In 2012, the Congress's Ashu won while the BJP's Prof Rajinder Bhandari finished second with 30.17 per cent votes. In 2017, Ashu won for a second consecutive time, but with the AAP entering Punjab's political landscape, the BJP was pushed to third, with Kamal Chatly finishing third with just 18 per cent of votes. In 2022, after the SAD-BJP alliance ended, the BJP's Bikram Sidhu came third while the AAP won.
Indian Express
18 minutes ago
- Indian Express
What Hardeep Puri got right – and wrong – about India's response to Pak-sponsored terror
In an interview published in this newspaper on May 10, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri stoutly — and correctly — defended Operation Sindoor and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's current Pakistan policy. The Pahalgam terrorist attack was dastardly and designed to destabilise India's social harmony. It had to be dealt with an iron hand. Modi did so. In the process, he sent a message to India's western neighbour and the international community that India would no longer tolerate Pakistani terrorism. Instead, it will combat it through the use of effective kinetic action. Modi's current Pakistan policy and actions have the support of the Indian people. This was demonstrated in the nation endorsing Operation Sindoor. The seven all-party delegations, which travelled to over 30 countries, conveyed India's resolve that Pakistani terrorism will be met by force. The fact that both government and opposition party MPs travelled together showed the determination of the Indian people against Pakistani terrorism. This said, it is obvious that Puri the politician has overtaken Puri's earlier avatar as an outstanding diplomat. Puri, the diplomat, would never have made this sweeping comment: 'The pre-Modi era of dealing with Pakistan was a theatre of the absurd'. There are several problems with Puri's formulation. The foremost is that it ignores the evolution of Modi's Pakistan policy. It is an undeniable fact that Modi sincerely decided to normalise ties with Pakistan. To do so, he went beyond the policies and actions of those who, according to Puri, dealt 'absurdly' with Pakistan. These included not only non-BJP PMs but also Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He led the country in quashing the Pakistani intrusion into Kargil in 1999. However, after an interval of a few years, he again sought to improve ties with Pakistan and went to Pakistan to attend a SAARC summit in 2004. Vajpayee also went ahead with the Lahore visit of February 1999 despite a terrorist attack on its eve. Modi began his innings as PM, demonstrating a genuine desire to establish cooperative relations with Pakistan. This led him to invite then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his 2014 oath-taking ceremony. The Pakistani generals were furious with Sharif's decision. They got the LeT to launch an attack on the Indian Consulate General in Herat days prior to Modi's swearing-in. Its purpose was to embarrass Modi and compel Sharif to call off his India visit. It was the alertness of an Indian security guard that prevented a major terrorist incident. Modi's meeting with Nawaz Sharif in Delhi in May 2014 led to a decision to renew the bilateral engagement. Certain obstacles created by the Pakistan army prevented that from occurring. Modi, however, persevered. He met Sharif on the sidelines of the SCO summit at Ufa in July 2015. The two leaders agreed that their National Security Advisors would meet to discuss terrorism. The Ufa Joint Statement was silent on Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani generals told Sharif that an exclusive meeting on terrorism could not happen. Modi relented. The National Security Advisors, along with the Foreign Secretaries, met in Bangkok in early December 2015. They apparently discussed some bilateral issues in addition to terrorism. A few days after the Bangkok meeting, the late External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj went to Islamabad to attend a meeting on Afghanistan. On its sidelines, India and Pakistan decided to begin a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue which would address contentious issues, terrorism, cooperation mechanisms and humanitarian matters. To cement this process, Modi paid a historic stopover visit to Lahore on Christmas Day 2015 and to greet Nawaz Sharif on his birthday and also felicitate him on the marriage of his granddaughter. The Pakistan generals could not countenance that they were being ignored in this process. Within 10 days, they sponsored the Pathankot airbase attack. Modi did not break off the engagement after the Pathankot attack. He tried to rescue the process. In this quest, he also allowed a Pakistani investigation team, which included an ISI officer, to visit Pathankot. Bearing in mind that none of Modi's predecessors had ever agreed to such a visit, what does Puri think of it? Was it 'absurd' that despite the Pathankot attack, Modi sought peace with Pakistan? Indeed, if Modi's predecessors had overlooked earlier terrorist attacks and did not want relations to break did Modi not act similarly after the Pathankot attack? Indeed, the fact is that Modi showed far more flexibility towards Pakistan than his predecessors had done and if the late Sati Lambah is to be believed, he sought backchannel communications with Pakistan in 2017 too. It was only after the Uri attack that Modi first authorised and publicised kinetic action. The Pulwama terrorist attack of 2019 led Modi to abandon the traditional Indian paradigm of dealing with Pakistan, which he had himself followed for over two years after becoming Prime Minister. In 2019, he took the historic decision to make fundamental constitutional changes regarding J&K. Pakistan reacted stupidly, and bilateral ties were downgraded. It was gradually from 2016 to Operation Sindoor that Modi demonstrated the shift in India's approach towards Pakistan. He has to be given credit for this, but the fact that he pursued for over two years what Puri unfortunately calls the 'theatre of the absurd' cannot be denied. Perhaps, in future, Puri the politician's statements, especially when they dwell on recent history, will be tempered by the experience of Puri the diplomat. The writer is a former diplomat
Mint
21 minutes ago
- Mint
Modi at G7 summit in Canada: Full itinerary of the PM's key engagements today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Canada to attend the G7 Summit at Kananaskis, his first visit to the country in a decade. The G7 summit is the first multilateral event that Modi will attend after the conclusion of Operation Sindoor– India's precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan last month, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. Modi, who is on a three-nation tour, arrived Monday evening (local time) in Canada from Cyprus at the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Kananaskis gathering is the Prime Minister's 6th consecutive participation in the G7 Summit. PM Modi said he would also emphasise the priorities of the Global South. This visit is part of his three-nation official tour, which began with Cyprus and will conclude with Croatia. "Landed in Calgary, Canada, to take part in the G7 Summit. Will be meeting various leaders at the Summit and sharing my thoughts on important global issues. Will also be emphasising the priorities of the Global South," PM Modi said in a post on X. The summit is being keenly watched as it is being held against the backdrop of escalating Israel-Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Apart from Modi, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will be among the guests at the summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. US President Donald Trump will return to Washington a day early from the G7 summit in Canada to attend to many "important matters," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said hours after the President refused to join a push for de-escalation and diplomacy between Iran and Israel. Prime Minister Modi will also hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit, coming over a month after India's Operation Sindoor that had targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attacks. During PM Modi's last visit in 2015, bilateral ties were elevated to the level of a strategic partnership. The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal grouping of the world's advanced economies - France, the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada and the European Union. Its members meet annually at the G7 Summit to discuss global economic and geopolitical issues. PM Modi is expected to speak at the G7 Outreach Summit scheduled for Tuesday before noon (local time). The Summit will be themed around three core issues - 'Protecting our communities around the world', 'Building energy security and accelerating the digital transition' and 'Securing the partnerships of the future'. Here is the full itinerary of PM Modi today before leaving for Croatia, his third and final stop in the five-day tour: 11 AM local time (10.30 PM IST, 17 June) – Welcome of Leaders for G7 Outreach Summit. 11.40 AM – 1250 AM local time (11.10 PM IST, 17 June onwards) – Bilateral meetings. 1 PM – 3. 30 PM local time (12.30 AM IST, 18 June) – G7 Outreach Session. 3.30 PM – 5 PM local time (3 AM IST, 18 June) – Bilateral meetings. Landed in Calgary, Canada, to take part in the G7 Summit. Will be meeting various leaders at the Summit and sharing my thoughts on important global issues. 6.20 PM local time ( 5.50 AM IST, 18 June)– Departure for Zagreb, Croatia.
