The foreign policy of all the successive Indian government has been that of tolerance and peace. Even the Indian military’s posture has been that of defensive – offense. Never in the history has India invaded any other country or taken an aggressive stance. While some may argue that India fired the first shot in 1971 war with Pakistan that liberated Bangladesh, I would counter argue that the Indian government took action against the aggressor, which was the Pakistani armed forces, trampling the Bangladeshi people. Allied intervention and invasion of Europe against the Nazis was tantamount to what India did in the Bangladesh War of Independence.
Indian defense strategy and foreign policy started to take a turn after 2014 when Mr. Narendra Modi got elected as prime minister. With Ajit Doval as the National security advisor, the country drastically changed its strategy to Defensive-Offence. Although, India did not launched any offence against any of its neighbor, especially Pakistan, it made it loud and clear that no terror activity on its soil would go unpunished. Albeit I am of an opinion that both the Uri attack and Balakot air strike were vague when it comes to providing concrete evidence of those assaults on the Pakistani occupied Kashmir, Indian retaliation after the recent Pahalgam attack, named as “Operation Sindoor”, surpassed my wildest imagination. Is this the same India that preached peace to the world and once gullibly signed Panchsheel with China in 1954.
Since the 1971 Indo-Pak war, this was the first time that the Indian army struck deep inside the Pakistani territory. Nine locations were targeted in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Pakistan by the Indian missiles and the Indian Air force under the able leadership of Air Chief Marshal Mr. AP Singh. Irrespective of how many terrorists died and how many building these retaliatory strikes brought down, it gave a strong message to the Pakistani administration and the Pakistani army and “enough is enough”. If innocent Indians, irrespective of their religion, bleed, there will be blood on Pakistani side as well. This message to Pakistan and the a larger global community was imperative.
So, has the “Operation Sindoor” been a success? In my opinion, yes. Has it achieved its ultimate goal of dismantling the Pakistani “terror ecosystem”? I think no, at least not yet. We have to take into account that dealing with terrorism is not only dealing with the people and the buildings that constitute the infrastructure used to launch terror attacks on the Indian soil. We are dealing with an ideology with sinister designs. It is easy to bring down infrastructure and kill some people, but it is an extremely intricate mission to kill an ideology, especially when it is state sponsored.
Just after the Operation Sindoor, I heard what the mastermind behind the Mumbai terror attacks, Masoor Azhar stated. “No regret, No Despair” were his words. He went further and stated that all his family members who died in the Indian attacks will become the “Guests of Allah”. Now how do we deal with that kind of a mindset. Killing one Masood is certainly not the solution since he (and the apparatus supporting him)can spawn ten more Masood’s.
Even though Indian state of Punjab is largely peaceful now, have we been able to stem out the Khalistan separatism completely? Absolutely not. Has United States and the western world succeeded in subduing the “Islamic terrorism” to the full extent? Absolutely not. Even in my country of origin, have we achieved victory in curbing the nefarious plots of organizations like “Bajrang Dal” targeted against the minorities? The answer in my opinion is again no.
I strongly think that terrorism cannot be completely erased only by the use of muscle power. It is a long term struggle requiring diplomatic, political and military measures. It also requires empowering and enlightening the youth, providing them with opportunities, and brining these disgruntled minds back into the mainstream.
Operation Sindoor was an absolute military necessity but it is still incomplete and not yet reached its fruition. We are in a long term game here.
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