India’s United Front: All-Party delegations to take anti-terror message global
A file image of an all party meeting
In a brilliant strategy on the part of the NDA government, delegations of all-party Members of Parliament are slated to set out on international outreach bids to brief foreign governments on the recent India-Pakistan conflict and our nation’s stance on the issue.
Seven senior MPs – Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) Sanjay Kumar Jha (JD-U), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (DMK), Supriya Sule (NCP), Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena) – will be heading the teams, each comprising 5-6 members from various parties who will commence the diplomatic initiative after May 22, visiting different countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In particular, the delegations will visit key partners of India and member countries of the United Nations Security Council.
The crucial objective of such an initiative is to show that our nation is united in confronting issues like cross-border terrorism and wants to persuade the global community to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorists and those who abet and harbour such terrorist groups.
Given that India and Pakistan were recently locked in a military confrontation following the terrorist attack at Pahalgam in Kashmir on April 22, carried out by Pakistan-based militants, the nation that has been singled out is obvious, and New Delhi hopes this move will make a global diplomatic and political impact against it.
It is true that since Operation Sindoor, the Indian government has been engaging with officials and foreign ministers of several countries to garner international support as New Delhi intensifies its measures against Islamabad.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has even gone to the extent of calling up his counterpart in the Taliban to bolster the essay! Yet, surprisingly, despite the seeming international detestation of terrorism and terror-supporting States, such an initiative has not been wholly successful, as reflected by the fact that Pakistan has been able to get the billion-dollar IMF loan it so desperately needed.
The Indian government is hoping that the new diplomatic offensive will serve to isolate Pakistan more from the international community and coerce it to take immediate and effective action against terror groups. An all-party initiative will also serve to show that, in spite of ideological differences, when it comes to national concerns, all Indian political parties can shed their bones of contention and stand together as one.
The citizens of India have yet another expectation from this essay. It is sad but true that political discourse within the nation has sunk to a new low and the dislike of political entities for one another has crossed all norms of civilized behaviour. Hopefully, working together for a national cause would facilitate reversal of such a trend.