Key Points

He made the remarks while speaking at the Centre on Foreign Relations on Thursday.

Tharoor addressed the India-Pakistan conflict, emphasising India's precise and calibrated response to terrorism. He highlighted the asymmetry of the conflict, where India targets terror bases while Pakistan's actions often harm civilians.

Tharoor said, "You can understand why we hit terror bases. There are no terror bases in India to hit. There are no terrorist organisations in India listed in the UN or the State Department anywhere else. So, what do you hit? You hit civilians, you hit innocent people. That is the asymmetry of this particular conflict. We have tried not just to be precise and calibrated in our response, but we have tried systematically. To signal we are not interested in war with Pakistan."

Tharoor explained that India's actions are aimed at terror bases, not civilians, and are a response to Pakistan's failure to shut down safe havens and arrest terrorist leaders.

Tharoor further added, "We're not interested in attacking Pakistani civilians, ordinary people. This is about India versus terrorism, and as far as we're concerned, situating the problem where it belongs is that you don't want places in your territory to be hit because they harbour terrorists. Why don't you shut down the safe havens? Why don't you arrest these leaders? Why don't you close their bank accounts? Why don't you disband these organisations or call them illegal? If you're not prepared to do any of that, then I'm afraid this is the only way we can deal with it because we are not going to sit back at our homes and be hit at your convenience. That's not going to happen."

He suggested that the Pahalgam terror attack was motivated by Pakistan's desire to shore up its army's popularity, particularly in the context of the country's economic stagnation and the imprisonment of a popular leader.

Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack, Tharoor told the gathering, "I think one of the principal motives for this horrific terror attack, which was signalled by the way, a few days earlier by a speech by the Pakistani military chief in which he made the astonishingly bigoted assertion that Muslims could not live in a non-Muslim majority country, which is kind of a bizarre thing to say, given the number of non-Muslim majority countries in which Muslims can be found, including the fact that we have 200 million Muslims in India who are living in peace with their neighbours, and one of them is a member of my delegation".

Taking a dig at Pakistan's army, Tharoor said, "One of the objectives was clearly to shore up the Pakistani army in a situation where they were deeply unpopular with the most popular leader in Pakistan sitting in jail for the last couple of years, and the economy stagnant and the government that they have been running or manipulating not doing very well in public opinion. And clearly, whatever happened in the conflict that was bound to ensue after the terrorist strike, they were going to declare victory for the army. So there was a lot of chuckling in Delhi when the failed general became a field marshal".

Tharoor criticised Pakistan's army, stating, "In India, the state has an army. In Pakistan, the army has a state," implying that the army's interests drive the country's actions.

Tharoor dismissed Pakistan's claims of inflicting significant damage on India, stating that there is no evidence to support these assertions. He noted that videos purporting to show damage from the conflict were actually from other conflicts in different years.

Tharoor said, "There is absolutely no evidence that Pakistan has been able to advance in support of its claim to have magnificent victories and great damage on India and so on. Absolutely no evidence. Two videos came out on social media, both turned out to be from other conflicts in other years, nothing to do with this one."

- ANI