Congress MP Shashi Tharoor defended India’s recent counter-terror operation, saying the name Operation Sindoor was not only symbolically potent but also emotionally resonant.
“Operation Sindoor, actually, I thought was a brilliantly chosen name,” Tharoor said, addressing journalists and foreign policy observers as part of India’s diplomatic outreach following the high-impact military response.
In an address at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Tharoor said, “Sindoor is a vermilion mark applied to the forehead of married women in Hindu tradition it’s a symbol of marital sanctity. These brutal terrorists wiped that symbol off the foreheads of 26 Indian women. So we wanted to avenge that act of wiping off the sindoor.”
Tharoor didn’t shy away from invoking strong imagery: “There is a Hindi expression, ‘khoon ka badla khoon’ — here it was ‘sindoor ka badla khoon’– blood in response to what they have done to the sindoor.”
The all-party delegation, which includes MPs from across the political spectrum, is currently touring key global capitals to shore up support and raise awareness of India’s position on terrorism.
Tharoor also addressed questions on the impact of the operation, stating that while specific losses are classified, India’s military had dealt a significant blow to Pakistan’s air capabilities.
“India not only effectively struck 11 airfields of the Pakistani military but Pakistan has publicly admitted that Indian strikes were so wide-ranging and effective they reached from Hyderabad in the south to Peshawar in the northwest,” he said.
Commercially available satellite imagery, he noted, showed craters on runways and destroyed operational command centres — a message, he implied, that India’s response was both restrained and resolute.
Earlier, the bipartisan US-India Caucus, including co-chairs Ro Khanna and Rich McCormick, was also briefed by the delegation on India’s persistent cross-border terror threats and New Delhi’s evolving counter-terrorism doctrine.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, which claimed 26 lives.
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