Shashi Tharoor lauds JMM’s Sarfaraz Ahmad for offering prayers with Hindu, Sikh colleagues at Panama temple

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor-led all-party delegation visited the Indian Cultural Centre in Panama and offered prayers at a temple there. The delegation made the visit while they were in Panama to put forth India’s stance against terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

In a post on X, Shashi Tharoor also said it was moving for him to see Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sarfaraz Ahmad, who is a part of the delegation, to join his Hindu and Sikh colleagues at the temple during the visit.

Tharoor shared pictures of the temple visit and wrote, “The multi-party MPs’ delegation visited the Indian Cultural Centre in Panama City and offered devotions at the beautiful temple there. It was moving to see our Muslim colleague Sarfraz Ahmed join his Hindu and Sikh colleagues at the temple. As he later told the audience, “jab bulane walon ko koi aitraaz nahin, toh jaane walo ko aitraaz kyon hoga?””

All the members of the all-party delegation offered prayers and performed aarti at the temple, as shown in a video.

What Shashi Tharoor said in Panama

Before the visit to the temple, Shashi Tharoor addressed the Indian community in Panama and said that India’s desire to just be left alone is not “reciprocated by our friends on the other side of the border.”

“They (Pakistan) have chosen repeatedly to attack us because they believe that they want territory which they do not control, which we control. It is part of the sovereign borders of the United Indian, and we are not going to give it to them even if we have to pay the price that we have repeatedly been paid,” he said.

Apart from Tharoor, the delegation includes Lok Janshakti Party’s Shambhavi Chaudhary, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Sarfaraz Ahmed, Telugu Desam Party’s G M Harish Balayagi, Bharatiya Janata party’s Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, and Bhubaneswar K Lata, Shiv Sena’s Mallikarjun Devda and Milind Deora, and former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

The delegation visited Panama on the third leg of their diplomatic outreach mission. They visited the United States and Guyana before this and will visit Brazil and Colombia next.