Washington: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation in the US, said that there can be no talks with Pakistan, before the country checks terrorism, emanating from its soil. Talking to media persons in Washington DC, he said, “I think the US has understood for some time now that India has a very clear position that there will be no talks with a gun pointed at our head. The problem is that we will not deal with people who are pointing a gun at our heads.”
Tharoor was speaking at the National Press Club in the US.
Neighbour unleashes his Rottweilers to bite your children: Tharoor
Tharoor went on to compare Pakistan with a neighbour with a terrier dog. He said, “I mean frankly, if your neighbour unleashes his Rottweilers to bite your children and in fact to do worse to your children, and then says, let’s talk. You think he’s going to talk to him until he either unleashes those Rottweilers or locks them up in a kennel or puts them to sleep. It’s as simple as that.”
He said that India will not be talking to people/countries which are pointing guns at its temple. When asked about the role of the US in encouraging talks between the 2 neighbours, the Congress leader said that the US has understood India’s position that there will be no talks with a gun pointed at our head.”
He further said, “I was joking the other day, we can speak all the languages they can speak and we are happy to dialogue with them in any of those languages.” He went on to explain that the all-party delegation from India was in the US to enhance understanding and clarify India’s stance and explain if there are any misapprehensions on the part of interlocutors. He said that the only aim of the all-party delegation, visiting different nations, was to make them understand India’s point of view(regarding India’s position on talks with Pakistan).
When questioned on the outcomes India expects from the visit of the all-party delegation to the US, Tharoor said that the MPs were not here to negotiate outcomes. That, he said, was the job of the government. Explaining the aim of the all-party delegation, he said, “Our job is to enhance understanding, to clarify our position and to explain if there are any questions or misapprehensions on the part of our interlocutors, we would be very happy to address them.”
The Tharoor-led all party delegation from India reached the US on Wednesday. The members of the delegation include, Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), GM Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena) and former Indian Ambassador to US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
