Operation Sindoor ‘brilliantly chosen' name: Shashi Tharoor in US – ‘not very different from colour of blood'

Mint

a day ago

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is leading the all-party delegation to the United States, said Operation Sindoor was a 'brilliantly chosen name'. The Tharoor-led delegation is visiting key global capitals as part of the government's diplomatic outreach to highlight India's stand on terrorism following Operation Sindoor.
During an interaction session at the National Press Club at Washington DC in the US on Wednesday (local time), Tharoor saod that the colour of sindoor is not very different from the colour of blood and even used the Hindi expression "khoon ka badla khoon" and said that here it was 'sindoor ka badla khoon', meaning blood in response to what the terrorists have done to the sindoor.
"Operation Sindoor, actually, I thought was a brilliantly chosen name. Sindoor, in case some Americans obviously don't know about this, is a vermilion mark that is applied to the centre of the forehead of married women in the Hindu tradition. It's widely practised. Some non-Hindus do it too, but more for decorative purposes, but strictly speaking, the Sindoor is applied at the time of the marriage ceremony and is worn every day thereafter by married women," Tharoor said when asked why India chose the name 'Operation Sindoor' for its counter-terrorism action.
As many as 26 people were killed and several others injured in the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on 22 April. Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
'So, we were very conscious of these brutal terrorists who, by the way, shot men in front of their wives and children but spared the women and when one wife screamed out, Kill me too, she was told, no, you go back and tell them what we've done,' Tharoor said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had vowed to avenge the terror attack in Pahalgam, is said to have monitored the operation through the night and coined the named 'Operation Sindoor', according to sources.
Codenamed 'Operation Sindoor', the mission aimed to eliminate top terror leaders from Jaish-e-Mohammedin Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Muridke. 'Operation Sindoor' is perhaps India's revenge on behalf of the widows of Pahalgam terror attack.
'That was why the women were spared horrendous, horrendous act. That sindoor had essentially been wiped off the foreheads of 26 Indian women, 26 I was gonna say Hindu women, but one of them actually was a Christian, but the sindoor had been wiped off the rest by these terrorist actions, and so we wanted first of all, to avenge that act of wiping off the sindoor,' Tharoor said.
"But, secondly, it's no accident that the colour of the sindoor is bright vermilion red, which is not far from the colour of blood, and in many ways there is a Hindi expression that 'khoon ka badla khoon'; here it was 'sindoor ka badla khoon' hoga, that is, blood in response to what they have done to the sindoor," he added.
The delegation led by Tharoor arrived in the US on Wednesday. The delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayogi (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.
Earlier, the all-party met Bipartisan co-chairs Ro Khanna and Rich McCormick, as well as vice co-chairs Andy Barr and Marc Veasey, on Wednesday. During the meeting, the parliamentary delegation briefed the Caucus members on the cross-border terrorism faced by India and India's strong and resolute stance against terrorism.
The delegation also held a meeting with the US House Foreign Affairs Committee leadership in Washington. DC. HFAC Chairman Brian Mast, Ranking Member of the committee, Gregory Meeks, South and Central Asia Subcommittee Chair Bill Huizenga, Ranking members - Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Ami Bera, Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific Chair, Young Kim.
Operation Sindoor, I thought was a brilliantly chosen name. The colour of sindoor is not very different from the colour of blood.
The all-party delegation arrived in the US after concluding their visit to Brazil.