Our message understood loud and clear: Ravi Shankar Prasad-led delegation concludes UK visit

London (PTI): BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad-led all-party delegation concluded the UK leg of their European tour on Tuesday following a series of meetings in the Houses of Parliament and India House in London, where the members presented India’s unequivocal stand against terrorism.

During an interaction with the media at the High Commission of India here, Prasad said that India’s zero tolerance stance against terrorist strikes emanating from Pakistan had been “understood loud and clear” in the UK and there was an agreement for greater two-way exchanges at a parliamentary level.

“Operation Sindoor is under pause, subject to the good behaviour of Pakistan,” Prasad told reporters at India House.

“We believe in peace, we believe in amity, but we don’t at all permit a situation that our innocent Indians are killed with impunity by terrorists. That is not acceptable, and this time Pakistan has been told they have to pay a cost for terrorism,” he said.

The final day of their three-day visit opened with an interaction with the House of Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and concluded with a dialogue hosted by the India All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the UK Parliament.

It followed the nine-member delegation’s talks with UK Foreign Office Minister for the Indo-Pacific Catherine West, Home Office immigration minister Seema Malhotra, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, Indian diaspora friendship groups from both the governing Labour and Opposition Conservative parties, as well as representatives of leading think tanks.

“We had a very wonderful visit to Great Britain… our message has been understood loud and clear. They have appreciated the need that the world needs to come together (against terrorism),” Prasad told PTI at the High Commission of India.

“In this historic India House, I’ve only one message: the decision that we all should go to different parts of the world including England is a very extraordinary decision. The Speaker [Hoyle] also said this morning that there needs to be more parliamentary contact on issues. So, we remain engaged,” he said.

The media interaction covered a broad spectrum of issues, including the nuclear dimension of the India-Pakistan conflict, China’s role and involvement, and sanctions against Pakistan.

“The nuclear bluff of Pakistan has been called out; as far as India’s nuclear strategy is concerned, we are very clear on our no-first-use policy. We are a responsible, democratic country and a responsible nuclear power but if Pakistan undertook an adventure of nuclear size, we are capable of responding,” said Prasad.

On China, the BJP leader highlighted India’s own bilateral relations with Beijing: “We have a dialogue with them, where you give them (Pakistan) weapons and they are being used for terrorism, for killing people… I’m quite sure China will understand.

“Ultimately, all the investment and projects in Pakistan are also getting disturbed because of this radicalisation and terrorism.”

The Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, said the diplomatic mission will remain focussed on following up and disseminating the delegation’s message as set out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The prime minister had made it abundantly clear that this is the new normal, Operation Sindoor stands paused, that essentially we will decide how and when to react whenever there is any provocation that comes from Pakistan,” Doraiswami told PTI.

India APPG co-chair Lord Karan Bilimoria welcomed the all-party consensus over the issue of counter-terrorism as he hosted the delegation in a packed Committee Room in the House of Lords.

“They explained very clearly the atrocities, the tragedy that took place in Kashmir and India’s position could not have been clearer. We stand united in India, we stand united in the UK against terrorism, and we will stand with India on this issue,” said Bilimoria.

“What is great about this meeting is that we were also able to discuss the whole relationship between the UK and including the recent signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the potential for business going forward, including in defence, the potential for education with UK universities now opening up in India. Most importantly, we must work much closer together on security,” he said.

“We have got to build on the trade and security links that we have negotiated over the past few years to enable the United Kingdom and India to operate together for mutual benefit… there’s nothing better than hearing directly from other colleagues in Parliament in India to enable us to understand exactly what India is doing,” noted Opposition Conservative Party MP and India APPG member Bob Blackman.

“There is an uneasy truce between India and Pakistan but the reality is that if Pakistan continues to foster terrorism, allow terrorist bases to operate from their side of the Line of Control, then India must respond and eradicate that terrorism,” he added.

The Prasad-led multi-party delegation is made up of MPs Daggubati Purandeswari, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ghulam Ali Khatana, Amar Singh, Samik Bhattacharya and M. Thambidurai, along with former minister and author M J Akbar and former Ambassador Pankaj Saran.

After the APPG meeting, co-chaired by British Indian Labour MP Jeevun Sandher, the group is headed with discussions and interactive sessions scheduled with the European Union (EU) in Belgium.