New Delhi, June 10 (IANS) Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who led a nine-member Indian delegation including MPs from different political parties as part of Operation Sindoor outreach to five countries, including the US and Brazil, on Tuesday said that the tour was hugely successful.

“I went for the country and spoke for the country,” said Tharoor while interacting with the Malayalam media here on Tuesday in response to a question about his party’s outlook on the venture.

Apart from Tharoor, the team included Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Tejasvi Surya, and former Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and it also visited Panama, Guyana, and Colombia.

“The whole purpose of the visit was to interact with think tanks, Presidents, Vice Presidents, parliamentarians and also former top political leaders and to brief them on what had happened,” said Tharoor.

About his American visit, he said nothing about trade issues or about who ‘intervened’ to stop the aggression was raised during their interactions, in a reference to President Donald Trump’s statements.

“After explaining the Indian position, all have understood things, as Pakistan had presented a weak case, as terrorists had attacked tourists,” he added.

Asked about what he intends to do following the visit, he said: “I am going to submit a detailed report to the Prime Minister, and it will be my report.”

“The trip was very hectic as we were travelling at night and hardly got time to sleep,” Tharoor added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had selected Tharoor to be part of the delegation and lead it, after it was found out that the Congress party’s list did not have the name of Tharoor.

Ever since Tharoor decided to contest against the official party high command’s nominee, Malikarjuna Kharge, for the post of Congress president, a majority in the Congress leadership was unhappy with him, but knowing his popularity, he managed to get support from a section of the party in Kerala.

Tharoor is a four-time Congress MP from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency since 2009.

–IANS

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