By Sushil Kutty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with the name ‘Operation Sindoor’ that targeted terrorist hubs in Pakistan. Modi sat through the night monitoring ‘Operation Sindoor’, named for the ‘Hindu widows’ of the Pahalgam terror attack. Pakistani terrorists snuffed the ‘Sindoor’ of these women and 26 Hindu men were killed. A Nepalese citizen was also killed for being a Hindu!
‘Operation Sindoor’ is Prime Minister Modi’s answer to Pahalgam. The name struck Modi and Modi couldn’t resist Modi! The tri-services chiefs, who were given a “freehand” to choose time and place for “unimaginable punishment”, did not have the spark in them to come up with a name like ‘Operation Sindoor.’
The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force carried out ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting nine targets Pakistan says five Rafale jets were downed by Pakistani missiles during the course of ‘Operation Sindoor’. The Indian armed forces say the precision strikes at 1:44 am dismantled nine terror hideouts in Pakistan’s ‘Punjab’, and in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, killing “900 terrorists, breathing fresh life in “Modi hai Mumkin hai”
The widows of Pahalgam have the option to marry again to sport the Sindoor but Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed up all night and monitored ‘Operation Sindoor’. India targeted terrorist bases in Pakistan and PoK, a total of nine strikes involving 24 missiles. By morning the media were talking of “an ode to the women whose husbands were slaughtered in Pahalgam.”
On Wednesday the Modi media was singing hosanna, congratulating Modi for the brilliant masterstroke, ‘Operation Sindoor’. The overnight strikes are a bigger version of the surgical and airstrikes. But there are conflicting reports and differing narratives. Both India and Pakistan are claiming victory.
And it is nobody’s guess that India lost the “dish-information” war. Pakistanis on social media and the legacy media of Pakistan were first off the block to spread the word that Pakistan won and India deserted positions and ran!
Pakistanis ran story after story claiming “three Rafale were downed.” The Indian media could not get beyond singling Prime Minister Narendra Modi for praise, and how, but for Modi, ‘Operation Sindoor’ wouldn’t have been.
Conflicting reports included the one about “ghar mei ghus ke marenge”. Some Indian reports said the Rafale didn’t enter Pakistan or POK and that the Rafale had the capability to strike Pakistani targets deep in Pakistani territory.
That said, it is difficult to separate Pahalgam from Pulwama. “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India demonstrated considerable “restraint in target selection and method of execution…We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held responsible,” India said in a statement.
Importantly, ‘Operation Sindoor’ wasn’t anything close to the “unimaginable punishment” that Modi cranked up with his unbridled imagination. Reports say this was only the first phase of ‘Operation Sindoor’ and that there will be a Phase 2, too, depending on whether Pakistan retaliated.
The immediate Pakistan retaliation was cross-border firing and artillery shelling at Indian villages along the Line of Control. Three Indian civilians were killed. Chances are Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon be out of the country on an urgent hugging spree.
Did Prime Minister Modi achieve the goals he had set to avenge Pahalgam? If the goal was to give his Hindu vote-bank a sense of pride and accomplishment, he has. Knowing the man, however, it is a cinch that Modi will revert to ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vishwas’. That he only chose to strike “terrorist hubs” and not “military installations” is proof he never wanted a full-fledged war.
Wars cost money and Modi knows it well. One night of airstrikes is enough for Modi. It is a Muslim world and Prime Minister Modi is acutely aware he can’t achieve other goals without Muslim largesse. Go the extra length in exacting revenge and Modi will no longer be the posterboy of the Gulf states, forget Indian Muslims! There is no guarantee that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will resume ‘Operation Sindoor’ anytime soon.
But the ball is in Pakistan Army’s court and the Pakistan Army has got the “go ahead” from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to go and free Pakistan’s ‘jugular. Our Prime Minister has to show that he is the Lion of the sub continent by winning the limited war. (IPA Service)
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