The TOI correspondent from Washington: An indirect war of words erupted between Indian and Pakistani delegations on Wednesday as they arrived separately in the US capital to present their respective versions of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Operation Sindoor, and the Kashmir issue, and the growing rift between the two nations. The spat was triggered by gratuitous remarks by Bilawal Bhutto, leader of the Pakistani delegation, who at a press conference at the United Nations in New York, likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “Temu version of (Benjamin) Netanyahu…a poor copy” as he sought to draw parallels between India’s punitive response to Pahalgal and Israeli actions in Gaza. Temu is a Chinese ecommerce website/app that sells discounted merchandize. The Indian delegation wasted no time smacking back. “Pakistan is a country that is surviving with inferior products borrowed from China, including military hardware. It must be hurting to see authentic, high-caliber military hardware and also strong democratic leadership on the other side of the border,” clapped back Tejasvi Surya, a member of the Indian team, as it arrived in Washington DC and began meetings with US lawmakers, think-tanks, and social media influencers.“A country that is busy creating fake heroes, by promoting failed Generals, will never know what true leaders look like,” Surya added. Shashi Tharoor, leader of the Indian delegation, appeared to have anticipated the clash, almost with a sense of relish, noting as the team arrived in Washington DC that the Pakistanis would also be there at the same time “so there’s going to be perhaps an increase in interest because there are two duelling delegations in the same city.”But Bhutto was down for the count even before got to Washington when he was ambushed at the UN as he tried to enlist sympathetic journalists with planted questions aimed at amplifying Pakistan’s narrative about India’s treatment of Muslims. Embarrassingly for him, a reporter called him out saying he had watched the briefings on both sides and “as far as I recall, there were Muslim Indian military officers who were conducting the briefings on the Indian side.“Bhutto also claimed that Pakistan radars had locked into 20 Indian jets on the night of May 7 and “If we wanted, we could’ve taken down all 20,” but Pakistan showed restraint and”only 6 were shot down — the ones that launched strikes.”He also rolled out the familiar trope about Pakistan being a “victim of terrorism” — in a city where Pakistani nationals Ramzi Yousuf and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed launched attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001. (more to follow)
