Shashi Tharoor of the Congress took aim at Pakistan for supporting terrorism during a diplomatic visit to the United States, invoking Hillary Clinton’s famous warning about “breeding vipers” to highlight the dangers of Pakistan’s long-standing links with terror groups.
The Congress MP is leading a multi-party Indian delegation to the US at a time when a Pakistani group, headed by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, is also in Washington. Both teams are lobbying global lawmakers and political leaders to support their respective national narratives, especially following the recent cross-border tensions sparked after the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
Shashi Tharoor responded to the Pakistani delegation’s claims that Islamabad is also a victim of terrorism. Speaking at the Indian embassy in Washington, he said, “This (Pakistan) delegation is going around saying we are also victims of terrorism, we have lost more lives to terrorism than India has. We turn around and say—whose fault is that?”
The Congress leader added, “As Hillary Clinton famously said 10 years ago, ‘You can’t breed vipers in your backyard and expect them to bite only your neighbours.’”
Tharoor added that Pakistan is now suffering at the hands of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group that broke away from the Taliban. “But who created the Taliban from which the Tehrik-i-Taliban broke off?” he asked.
“We all know the answer to that, so let Pakistan look inside it and let it do some serious interior reflection before it goes around pleading innocence and deniability and everything else,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP added.
‘It is not India versus Pakistan”
The Pakistani delegation, during its addresses in the US, is promoting Islamabad’s stance on what it calls “Indian aggression”, adding that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism even more than India.
Addressing the Pakistan delegation’s claims, Tharoor said, “We are not there with a message about India versus Pakistan. It’s about India as a democracy facing terror and as a country that has been focused on its own economic development and growth story. Even Kashmir was a story of prosperity and a booming economy.”
He highlighted tourism as a sign of progress in Jammu and Kashmir, saying, “I told the Americans we had more tourists in Kashmir last year than Aspen, Colorado receives. We had a 100 per cent increase in the first three months of this year compared to the first three months of last year.”
Describing the brutal nature of the Pahalgam attack, Tharoor said terrorists are trying to spark religious conflict. “Why do they go around asking people their religion and shooting them? When one horrified wife screamed, ‘kill me too’, they said go back and tell them. They wanted a communal backlash.”
The Indian delegation’s visit comes in the wake of Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 in response to a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 civilians.
He also dismissed claims that India’s actions are driven by religious or communal motives. “When Operation Sindoor was conducted, of the three briefers, two were women and one was a Muslim woman officer. None of our delegations is without at least one Muslim member,” Tharoor stated. “This is about terrorism. It’s not about religion, it’s not about communal issues, it’s not about bilateral India.”
India’s Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, killing over 100 militants linked to groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Hostilities ended on May 10 after both nations agreed to a ceasefire.
