An all-party delegation led by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday left for a six-nation visit as part of India’s diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor with a brief to further expose Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and foster international solidarity against terror.
The delegation will visit the UK, France, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark. It comprises Daggubati Purandeshwari and Samit Bhattacharya from the BJP, Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena(UBT), Amar Singh and Ghulam Ali Khatana from the Congress, former MP MJ Akbar, and former diplomat Pankaj Saran.
“India believes in peace and harmony but will respond firmly to cross-border attacks,” Mr Prasad said before his departure, asserting “there should be zero tolerance against terrorism and there should be a global alliance against it.”
“Together, we will say only two things effectively, we believe in peace and harmony, but if there is a terrorist attack on Indians from across the border, then there will be Operation Sindoor. The security of every Indian citizen is the responsibility of the government, and today terrorism is a cancer which is troubling the whole world, a big centre of which is Pakistan,” Mr Prasad said.
Also talking to the media, Ms Purandeshwari said that “India will no longer tolerate the decades-long terrorism it has faced.”
Three of the seven multi-party delegations led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Baijayant Panda, and Nationalist Congress Party(SP) MP Supriya Sule had on Saturday embarked for their respective destinations while the delegation led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi left for a five-nation visit as part of India’s diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor on Thursday.
The delegations led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde had left for their respective delegations on Wednesday.