Washington, June 5 - Amid repeated claims by US President Donald Trump to mediate to end the India-Pakistan military standoff, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that India respects the US President a lot but New Delhi has 'never asked anyone to mediate'.
Tharoor, the leader of the all-party parliamentary delegation that arrived to brief him on Operation Sindoor, told reporters at the National Press Club after a round of meetings with US government officials and lawmakers, "I can only say that we respect the US President a lot. We can only say for ourselves that we never wanted to ask anyone to mediate."
Tharoor asserted that India has no problem speaking the same language as the Pakistanis. "As long as they use the language of terrorism, we will use the language of force," he said. There is no need for a third party for this.
The delegation of MPs includes Sarfaraz Ahmed, Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhuvneshwar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejashwi Surya and former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu. The delegation arrived in New York from India on May 24 and has already visited Guyana, Panama, Colombia and Brazil before reaching Washington.
Tharoor said that if Pakistan destroys the infrastructure of terrorism, then “we can talk to them.” The Congress leader said, “If they take serious action (against the infrastructure of terrorism) to restore normal relations with us, then we can talk to them again without any mediation.”
In response to a question about the role of the US in promoting dialogue between India and Pakistan, Tharoor said, “I think the US has understood India’s stance that there will be no dialogue with a gun to our head. It is not that we cannot talk to Pakistan.”
He said, “India can speak all the languages ??that the Pakistanis speak. 
The problem is that we will not talk to people who are pointing a gun at our head. You are not going to talk to people who are pointing a gun at your temples. That is not going to happen.”