Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Veteran diplomat and former United Nations Undersecretary-General Shashi Tharoor said on Tuesday that India will not take the first step to normalize bilateral relations with Pakistan.
Speaking at the launch of a book, Whither India-Pakistan Relations Today?, an anthology edited by former ambassador Surendra Kumar, he said India no longer has the appetite to take the first step in normalising ties with Pakistan after repeated betrayals.
Tharoor, who led an Indian diplomatic outreach to the US and other countries to explain India’s position on Operation Sindoor, asked Islamabad to demonstrate sincerity by dismantling terror networks operating from its soil.
The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said every Indian attempt at outreach — from Jawaharlal Nehru’s pact with Liaqat Ali Khan in 1950, to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s bus journey to Lahore in 1999, and Narendra Modi’s Lahore visit in 2015 — had been “betrayed” by hostility from across the border.
“Given the record of Pakistani behaviour, the onus is on them. They’re the ones who have to take the first steps to show some sincerity about dismantling terror infrastructure on their soil.
“Why can’t they be serious about shutting down these terror camps? Everyone knows where they are. The UN committee has a list of 52 names of individuals, organisations and places in Pakistan. It’s not that Pakistan doesn’t know they exist,” Tharoor said.
He said, “Shut them down, arrest some of these characters, show some serious intent.” India would be more than willing to reciprocate once such action is taken, but won’t take the first step now, he said.
Recalling the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Tharoor said India had provided “overwhelming evidence” of Pakistani involvement, including live intercepts and dossiers, yet “not one mastermind has been prosecuted.”
He noted that New Delhi showed “extraordinary restraint” after attacks, but subsequent provocations left India with little choice, leading to surgical strikes in 2016 and the Operation Sindoor in May 2025.
“In my book Pax Indica, which was published in 2012, I had warned that if there was ever another Mumbai-like attack of comparable impact, with clear evidence of Pakistani complicity, the restraint we had shown in 2008 might become impossible and all bets would be off.
“And indeed, that is exactly what happened. No democratic government, least of all in India with its long record of betrayals by Pakistan, could sit idle while its neighbour assaults its civilians and innocent holidaymakers with impunity,” he explained.
Tharoor also stressed that “peace and tranquillity on the borders is indispensable to our national interest,” and cited the reconciliation between France and Germany after the Second World War, as well as the United States’ eventual ties with Vietnam, as examples of adversaries turning into partners.
The discussion was also joined by former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, former Indian Ambassador to Pakistan T C A Raghavan, ex-Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor and academician Amitabh Mattoo.