Operation Sindoor: A Testament to India’s New Strategic Resolve

After the barbaric Pahalgam attack, terrorists told a shell-shocked wife, “Go, tell Modi. This is why we spared you!!”. A fortnight later, India delivered a befitting reply. In one of its boldest strikes in 50 years, India conducted airstrikes on Pakistan under “Operation Sindoor”, a name given by PM Modi. Religious profiling of a heinous kind shook the collective psyche of the nation. The headshots on civilians from close range in front of their wives and children, a chilling provocation, reignited the transgenerational trauma of Hindu Indians.

At a time when Bharat is taking baby steps towards reclaiming and reasserting its civilisational identity with the political dispensation at the helm subtly favouring it, this barbaric massacre stoked fears of a looming threat from an intolerant ideology. Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism is the defining civilisational identity of Bharat. With an assault on its identity, the perpetrators deliberately chose to breach a ‘Red Line’ that stoked fears and attempted to exploit communal dissensions.

Brewing outrage warranted strong government action against the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack. Refusing to ‘forgive and forget,’ the government immediately unveiled a panoply of retaliatory measures—diplomatic, economic and strategic. This also included the deferment of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), a treaty that withstood the 1965, 1971 and 1991 wars. Upping the diplomatic and strategic fronts, India built up pressure.

Refraining from jingoism and name-calling, PM Modi delivered a pointed message saying, “India will identify, trace and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth. India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished”. Vowing to deliver justice, India launched airstrikes on nine places in a span of 25 minutes. The 21 missile strikes have reduced the terrorist safe havens to rubble. The targets include the headquarters and recruitment centres of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, eliminating close to 100 terrorists.

Upping the game and keeping the expectant Pakistan guessing, India has steadily escalated the wargames and blown up its terror ecosystem operating from within the precincts of Indian territory. At a place and time of its choosing, India struck the terrorist sites. Aptly named as “Operation Sindoor” to avenge the irreparable loss suffered by the Hindu women.  The Sindoor, which the perpetrators ridiculed, became their nemesis.

The Modi government has set a precedent of retaliatory action with surgical strikes post the Uri attack and the Balakot airstrikes. The retaliatory kinetic action to avenge the attacks on military personnel in both cases was restricted to a single location. Expanding the ambit, India struck four locations in POJK and five in Pakistan, including the Punjab province, the unimpeachable fortress of the Pakistani military ecosystem. India is now steadily escalating the costs for Pakistan.

Effectively running down the nuclear threat card played by Islamabad, India, is broadening the scope for conventional warfare. Playing to its strengths, India has extracted its pound of flesh by hitting the terrorist camps. With precision strikes on the terror camps, India has narrowed the scope of escalatory strikes from Pakistan. Attacks on military bases and civilian infrastructure would take the conflict to the next level. With this, India has shifted the onus of escalation to Pakistan.

Joined at the hip, the Pakistani military and terror ecosystem are integrally intertwined. Dozens of Indian dossiers submitted to the UNSC have inexorably established these links. Pakistan strategically deployed these ‘non-state actors ’ against India and Afghanistan to export terrorism. Cultivated, nurtured and financed by Pakistan, these terrorist outfits have been ‘expendables’, often thrown under the bus to present a victimhood image before the Western world.

By pounding these terrorist dens, India has exposed the double game of Pakistan. For decades, big powers and Muslim countries stonewalled Indian efforts to expose the state-sponsored terrorism of Pakistan and the concomitant economic sanctions imposed on rogue nations. Countries safeguarded Pakistan, a useful vassal state, from international scrutiny. China watered down every attempt of New Delhi to proscribe Pakistani terrorists as global terrorists.

Making a grand detour from this vainglorious effort to unveil the Pakistan fount of terrorism through dysfunctional multilateral forums, India began taking Rawalpindi to task with quick retaliatory strikes. Along with imposing definite costs for terrorist attacks, India is holding Pakistan accountable for the conflicts, producing incontrovertible evidence. The press meeting held by the Indian Army post Operation Sindoor has eloquently presented the Indian side of the story. Backing the evidence with facts, devoid of rhetoric, through plain speak and undeniable horror wreaked on India, New Delhi has exposed Pindi’s Ghazwa-e-Hind.

From the beginning, India's leadership vowed to serve justice to the bereaved families in the Pahalgam incident. Delivering on its promise, India extracted retribution and reaffirmed that ‘every single life matters’. The airstrikes underscored India’s military edge over Pakistan and pushed Islamabad on the defensive.

The visuals of terror dens reduced to rubble have put the prestige and bravado of the Pakistani army at stake. Inaction would further damage the eroding Pakistani Army’s image. The element of surprise in Indian strikes has heightened unpredictability and an incalculable threat of incursion. By wielding a variety of non-military retaliatory measures, India is suffusing Pakistani policy with an element of ‘vulnerability’.

These retaliatory strikes are a ‘calculated and measured response’, and are not by means a permanent deterrence. Pakistan would retaliate. It is evident from the Indian announcement of airstrikes as the first phase of Operation Sindoor. Rooted in the two-nation theory, which is irreconcilably anti-India, peaceful co-existence with Pakistan is a distant nightmare. To put down, this avowed India’s enemy, New Delhi has to evolve a long-term deterrent policy that can impose heavy costs on Pakistan to curtail the cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan is banking on its strategic geographic location and non-state actors to the hilt to earn the favour of the World powers. Above all, Islamabad also wields the Islamic card to garner the support of the OIC nations. Given the cumulative advantages Pakistan continues to enjoy, no single measure can effectively deter Pakistan for a long time. To impose heavy costs for its terrorist activities and anti-India agenda, New Delhi must charter a multi-pronged approach to throttle Pakistan’s economy and deplete its strategic manoeuvrability. Exploiting India’s ethno-religious faultlines and co-opting public intellectuals to destabilise India. New Delhi should contemplate paying back Islamabad in the same coin.

India’s extreme restraint, measured response and choice of strikes markedly stood out amid Pakistan’s bombastic nuclear threat. Indian leadership displayed rare courage and unique statesmanship in the run-up to Operation Sindoor. Giving a free hand to the Indian Military, adopting a whole government approach launching comprehensive strikes, India has shed diffidence. This strategic assertiveness is an indirect message to China.

Claiming to be a victim of terrorism, Pakistan Army officials attended the funeral of US-designated terrorist Abdul Rauf, killed in Operation Sindoor.

Double-speak thy name and terrorism thy game, it is high time, the world recognises Pakistan for what it is- A Mothership of Terrorism.