By Rati Agnihotri
There was a time when the “Kashmir issue” was raised relentlessly in the Parliament of Western countries like the UK and the US. Even as Pakistan-sponsored terrorism continued to strike India and batter its soul, the global community largely remained a mute spectator to India’s safety and security concerns, even as Pakistan’s “right to inflict cross-border terrorism” was subtly and covertly legitimised through the incessant though unwanted intervention of Western lawmakers, journalists, political leaders, etc., who waxed eloquently on the Indian state’s supposed suppression of the rights of Kashmiri people.
Barely a decade ago, the West used the Kashmir issue as a strategic and geopolitical blackmail tool of sorts, dressing up secessionist rhetoric as human rights concerns. The desired end goal – a permanent state of geopolitical turmoil in South Asia, and a somewhat contained India whose rise should never become a threat to the West-dominated world order.
Circa 2025. The geopolitical tables have completely turned. We are in the middle of a fast-churning world order no longer characterised by the traditional binaries of the North vs South. It’s a highly fragmented multipolar world order; the structural worldview of the traditional alliance system is crumbling as countries increasingly engage in somewhat more transactional and issue-based partnerships. As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar remarks aptly in his book, ‘The India Way’, there are no permanent friends or enemies in this new world order but rather “frenemies” who focus on leveraging convergences and managing divergences.
It is against this highly unpredictable and charged-up geopolitical milieu that India’s decisive response to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the form of Operation Sindoor becomes immensely significant.
Operation Sindoor signals a decisive change in India’s strategic narrative. This change is undoubtedly linked to India’s war against terror, but it is not limited to that. It also signals a paradigm shift in India’s terms of engagement with the world at large. India has given a loud and clear message to the global community that matters related to its national security and the safety of its citizens are not fodder for international deliberations and incessant virtue signaling. Rather India itself solely decides how best to address contentious issues affecting its safety, security, and sovereignty.
With Operation Sindoor, India has set a new precedent – An act of terror will be treated as an act of war and responded to accordingly, going forward. The Indian Prime Minister in his address to the nation delivered on 12 May also emphasised that, from now on, India will not make any distinction between terrorist organisations and government-sponsored terrorism. In other words, the Indian Prime Minister sent a strong message to the global community that any future act of terror on Indian soil would automatically invite punitive action against the Pakistani government. This is a much-needed and bold position that India has never taken before.
When the 26/11 Mumbai attacks happened, the then government never took any decisive military action against Pakistan. Despite clear-cut evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the attacks, the government’s response was characterised by diplomatic overtures including candle marches, lip service condemnation, and the sending of dossiers to Islamabad. The result -India couldn’t decisively convey to the global community that Pakistan was not a victim of terrorism, but a sponsor, that the Pakistani state itself was an extension of the terror infrastructure. As India bore the brunt of some of the bloodiest terrorist carnages from 2004 to 2014, Pakistan took strategic advantage of India’s lack of strategic clarity in strongly condemning terrorism emanating from its soil.
Thus, the international community continued debating the “Kashmir issue” even as Pak-sponsored terrorists repeatedly bombed civilian sites in India, killing innocent people.
Operation Sindoor has closed this gap by refashioning India’s strategic narrative. PM Modi in his speech also declared that Operation Sindoor is now India’s policy against terror. He sent a clear signal to the global community that any act of terror on Indian soil would be decisively dealt with through military action, and that there would be no space for dialogue and diplomacy until the Pak-sponsored terror trail continues. The PM also emphasised that the only topics that could be discussed with Pakistan in the near future would be terror and PoK, thus setting clear boundaries.
Prime Minister Modi’s address to the nation following the successful completion of Operation Sindoor and the announcement of the understanding regarding the stoppage of firing and military action, is also a strong signal to the global community. The US President’s offer to act as a mediator in the “Kashmir dispute” stands firmly rejected as Prime Minister Modi made it amply clear that the only issue regarding Kashmir to be discussed with Pakistan would be the status of “Pak-occupied Kashmir”. Furthermore, India has categorically mentioned that the only outstanding issue between India and Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied Kashmir and that any issue concerning Jammu and Kashmir will be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally.
It is also significant that India hasn’t officially used the word ceasefire while referring to the stoppage of firing and military action, choosing to call it an “understanding” instead. It has also repeatedly emphasised that the understanding exists only as long as the other party doesn’t violate the terms and conditions. It has maintained that, if the Pakistani side resorts to military action and firing again, the Indian side would retaliate strongly.
Operation Sindoor has radically ruptured India’s perceived strategic complacency. Characterised by strong military action but not limited to it, Operation Sindoor is now India’s official policy against terror determined by a multi-pronged strategy combining economic, diplomatic, surveillance, and military approaches.
India’s new strategic narrative thus is one in which diplomacy becomes a tool for a powerful end and not an end in itself. India’s international diplomacy is no longer about endless optics and virtue signaling but rather seeks to create a comprehensive consensus on its overall stand against terrorism. Once India begins to leverage trade and business as powerful strategic tools to negotiate with the global community vis-à-vis its firm stand against terrorism emanating from Pakistan, this new strategic narrative will certainly yield impressive results in the near future.
Most importantly, India’s new strategic narrative marks the arrival of a robust civilisational power that doesn’t seek external validation. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attacks and Operation Sindoor, Western media unleashed an incessant stream of anti-India propaganda masquerading as journalism. Global media outlets like the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, CBC, The Guardian, etc., frequently referred to terrorists as “gunmen” in their coverage, thus conveniently whitewashing Pak-sponsored terror.
A lot of Western media coverage in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor uncritically propagated Pakistani propaganda and portrayed India as an aggressor. Psychological warfare is all about perception. A huge section of global elite media whitewashed Pak-sponsored terrorism and put India and Pakistan on an equal footing in its coverage of the operations. Even as Pakistan violated the ceasefire barely 2 to 3 hours after the official announcement, the Western media distorted facts, conveying the impression through its coverage that both India and Pakistan blamed each other for violating the ceasefire
Elite Western media resorted to the archetypal colonial and imperialist frameworks in its coverage of India’s fight against terror. Eschewing an accurate reportage of the sequence of events unfolding, it downplayed information provided by official sources in India, even as it came equipped with substantial evidence, while the Pakistani side was literally given a free hand in spinning its own version of Don Quixote chasing the windmills.
India calmly countered these pernicious narratives through regular official briefings and press conferences. Unlike Pakistan, it didn’t invest in a large-scale disinformation campaign. In other words, it focused on substance rather than optics. The final blow to Pakistani propaganda was delivered by Prime Minister Modi himself who posed in front of the S-400 air defence system during his visit to Adampur airbase in Punjab, thus debunking Pakistan’s claim of destroying India’s S-400 system.
Even in the case of Donald Trump’s preposterous claims regarding using trade as a pressure tactic to get India and Pakistan to agree to the ceasefire, India didn’t take a hyper-aggressive approach to counter the narrative, but gently and firmly drove home the point that even as the US Vice President JD Vance spoke to the Indian PM on 9 May and US Secretary Rubio spoke to India’s External Affairs Minister on 8 May and National Security Adviser ( NSA) on 10 May , no reference to trade was made in any of the discussions.
This then is one of the most defining features of India’s new strategic narrative – it doesn’t mind playing the narrative game but at the same time, the new India is not driven by the need for Western validation. It increasingly plays the game on its own terms.
