Operation Sindoor: Shashi Tharoor-led all-party delegation heads to US for global outreach

Along with Tharoor's team, another delegation led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Jay Panda has already reached Bahrain.

Prior to leaving the country for the national assignment, Tharoor, a former diplomat, took a dig at US President Donald Trump for claiming credit to have brokered peace between India and Pakistan during the escalation earlier this month.

Tharoor said no formal process of mediation was either requested or conducted by any third party.

He said the Indian government has apprised all world leaders of its action against terror bases in Pakistan.

"You're aware of our government's stand very clearly. During any crisis, there's always contact with those countries that call and reach out. We have taken the same line everywhere. There's been no formal process of mediation, either requested or conducted," TOI quoted Tharoor as saying.

"You call me, I tell you what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, and that's it. Then, if you want to go and repeat that to somebody else and they take certain consequences as a result of that, is that called mediation? I don't think so. Not in my vocabulary," Tharoor said.

"But in any case, we are always a country that talks in a very constructive way to whoever, if there's a crisis going on. Our foreign minister, if I remember correctly, put it on his Twitter (X) account every time he had a call with another foreign minister," he said.

'US was in the United States': Jaishankar junks Trump's mediation claims

Earlier this week, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said it was Pakistan that had reached out to India for a deal to cease the military conflicts, rubbishing Trump's claims that he had acted as a mediator.

Speaking to Netherlands-based broadcaster NOS, Jaishankar said, "It was the Pakistani army which sent a message that they were ready to stop firing, and we responded accordingly."

Regarding Washington's involvement in the ceasefire, the minister said, "The US was in the United States."

"We made one thing very clear to everybody who spoke to us, not just the United States but to everyone, saying if the Pakistanis want to stop fighting, they need to tell us. We need to hear it from them. Their general has to call up our general and say this. And that is what happened," he added.

Operation Sindoor in brief

Operation Sindoor was a fierce military operation launched by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 tourists who were enjoying their vacation at Baisaran Valley, which is referred to as India's Switzerland.

The operation aimed to dismantle terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

After the Pakistan Army again targeted Indian civilians and resorted to cross-border firing, the Indian Armed Forces retaliated, destroying defence systems of the hostile neighbour.

Following the same, India is sending a total of seven all-party delegations to different countries to apprise them of the significance of Operation Sindoor and expose Pakistan's role in harbouring cross-border terrorism.