The government is planning to send multi-party delegations for a diplomatic outreach with other countries to present India’s point of view on the recent India-Pakistan conflict in wake of the Pahalgam attack, in which 26 tourists were killed by unidentified terrorists.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) didn’t respond to requests for a comment on the plan and why the government felt it was required. The government’s move to mobilise all-party delegations mirrors similar initiatives by previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments, to make India’s case abroad on crucial issues.
As per sources, the delegations will comprise prominent leaders and Parliamentarians from across the political lines. It will also have former diplomats and other specialists. The multiple groups will leave for different destinations across the world on May 23. They will visit various capitals and interact with both government and civil society groups. Sources also confirmed that former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who leads the Democratic Progressive Azad Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi are likely to be part of the delegations. Since the Pahalgam attacks on April 22 and Operation Sindoor, the Narendra Modi government has projected India’s “secular” image, choosing two women of different faiths, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, to lead the military briefings.
“The idea is to bring the focus back on the core issue of terrorism, which perhaps has not received the necessary attention from the world leaders,” an opposition Rajya Sabha MP said.
The move comes after the Indian government strongly refuted U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim on his behind-the-scene role in bringing the hostilities between India and Pakistan to a pause. Under Operation Sindoor, India conducted strikes on nine terror locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a press conference in the capital on May 13 said that the government did not deviate from its stated policy, that “any issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of J&K have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally”.
Past governments too have reached out across the aisle to assist them in presenting the country’s view point and for better people-to-people outreach. In 1994, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao sent Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid and other leaders to make India’s case at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in Geneva, where a Pakistan-sponsored resolution that sought to censure India on human rights in J&K was defeated.
In 2008, after the Mumbai attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to send multi-party delegations to different continents with dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks. While India had decided not to attack Pakistan militarily, the diplomatic offensive brought unprecedented international pressure on Pakistan to crack down on the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other groups through the United Nations Security Council and Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which grey-listed Pakistan for the first time.
“Prime Minister Singh was very clear, that India would win global solidarity over its fight against cross-border terrorism, and he didn’t want to diffuse the message by making it about India-Pakistan tensions, and the delegations we led found favourable responses in every capital we visited,” MP and former Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal told The Hindu. He had appealed to the government last week to consider sending such delegations after Operation Sindoor. He had led a similar delegation to Africa in 2008.
Published – May 16, 2025 12:46 am IST
