‘We can’t expect Pakistan to not have good relations with US’: Shashi Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said India has nothing against the Pakistani people and wants the nation to prosper. However, he added, India does not want Islamabad to dispatch terrorists. “As simple as that,” he said, elaborating in an interview. Tharoor added that India did not need persuading when it came to the ceasefire with Pakistan. 

Talking to Rick Sanchez on his show ‘Journalistically Speaking’, Tharoor was answering a question about Pakistan’s relationship with the US. Sanchez asked what he makes of the US’ “serious overtures” with Pakistan, Tharoor said, “I think the US is in a better position to answer that question than we are. If it's a way of saying here are the carrots and there will be sticks if you don't behave I mean that's fine. If it's something else we'll have to watch.” 

“The US and India have a strategic relationship. The US and Pakistan used to have an an alliance in the days of CENTO and SEATO…so it goes back quite a while,” said Tharoor, referring to the alliances created in the early 1950s. CENTO, comprising Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, was created to protect the Middle East, while SEATO, comprising the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines, served the same purpose in Asia. CENTO and SEATO fell apart around 20 years before the end of the Cold War. 

“As far as the Pakistani military is concerned many of them have been trained in the US, have been to US institutions, have good links with elements in the military there and there's always stories of the deep states etc on both sides having links, so we can't expect that the US wouldn't have good connections in Pakistan. If they can influence Pakistan to be a responsible player on the world, if they can tell Pakistan ‘listen shut down these terrorist camps, they're not doing you any good, focus on your own development we'll help you’, that's a great message. We'd like Pakistan to grow and develop and prosper. We have nothing against the Pakistani people. We just don't want them to incubate and dispatch terrorists. It's as simple as that,” he said.  

Tharoor said that the conflict was not about India and Pakistan, but about India vs terrorism. “When you get hit by terror. This kind of solution isn't easy. You really have to hit back,” he said. 

Commenting on Trump taking credit for the India-Pakistan ceasefire, Tharoor said India did not need persuading. “We had been signaling from day one that this was about retribution, it was not about the opening salvo or a protracted war. We had no desire whatsoever to see this thing going on and we actually announced each day that if Pakistan hits we'll hit, if Pakistan stops we'll stop. So the moment Pakistan called out on the fourth day and said ‘hey we'd like to call it off’, we said yes instantly. That in many ways was consistent so we didn't need anyone to tell us. We didn't hit any Pakistani government infrastructure, any military infrastructure, any civilian infrastructure. We just said, ‘Look this is about terrorism, we've hit the terrorists, now if you don't choose to retaliate, it's over, we're done’. But they retaliated indiscriminately and we had no choice,” said Tharoor. 

Answering a question on whether it is fair to put the blame squarely on the government for something people in the state, who are not necessarily tied to the government, do. “In that case, why do you give safe haven to these characters? Why are they allowed to run a 200 acre campus in the heart of your most populous province? Why are they able to freely conduct training camps with Kalashnikovs and worse, and instruct people on what to do? Let's face it, we've had too many denials ever since the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan…It's very difficult for us to take Pakistani denial seriously,” he said.