'India Will Not Turn The Other Cheek': Shashi Tharoor Reaffirms Firm Stance Against Terrorism

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Shashi Tharoor reaffirmed that India will firmly respond to any future terrorist attacks by Pakistan, rejecting any notion of turning the other cheek.
Reaffirming India's stance against terrorism, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said India will not turn the other cheek and will respond to any further attacks by Pakistan.
Referencing his remark, Tharoor also emphasised the teaching of Mahatma Gandhi to live without fear.
The Congress MP, leading a multi-party delegation to Panama, was speaking at an event organised by the Indian Embassy in the city.
'He (Mahatma Gandhi) also taught us in his brave leadership in our struggle for freedom that we must always stand up for our rights," Shashi Tharoor said.
'We must always stand up in principle for the values we believe in, and we must live without fear that freedom from fear is what we in India have to fight for these days against the evil attacks of malign men who are called by the world as terrorists, but who believe that by doing this kind of thing of coming into our country, killing innocent people and going off again that they will somehow achieve some larger political or religious cause," he added.
'That is not something that any self-respecting country will give in to, and even the land of Mahatma Gandhi will not turn the other cheek when this happens, we will respond," Tharoor added.
Speaking at the event, the Congress MP also slammed the Pakistan Army for a funeral for terrorists killed during India's 'Operation Sindoor'.
'When we struck their terror headquarters, we took some lives, and of course, a funeral was conducted. There were some very prominent people at that funeral. There was at least one individual whose name had been listed by the United Nations Sanctions Committee. It was people in uniform from the highest threat echelons of the Pakistani Army and police mourning at the funeral of designated terrorists," Tharoor said.
'This is the country that now says we are innocent. We did not do it. You do not mourn for people you do not know," the Congress MP said.
Also speaking on the Pahalgam attack, Shashi Tharoor said the motive behind the terror attack was to undermine India and to undermine the economy of Jammu and Kashmir.
'This terrorist action was in pursuance of a cynical set of objectives that sadly only the Pakistani military seems to want to pursue to undermine our country, to undermine the Kashmiri economy, which was booming with tourism," he said.
'I was told by my friend, the Indian Ambassador to Washington, that there were more tourists in this place in Kashmir in Pahalgam than in Aspen, Colorado," Tharoor said.
On Wednesday, the Tharoor-led delegation met the President of the Republic of Panama, Jose Raul Mulino, at the Presidential house.
The delegation led by Tharoor includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora.
First Published:
May 29, 2025, 08:35 IST