Prime message: on India’s strong line and Pakistan  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on Monday night and his visit to the Adampur base of the Indian Air Force in Punjab on the frontlines with Pakistan on Tuesday were reassuring for the nation that has been in the midst of a volatile conflict. Mr. Modi reiterated India’s revised strategy of responding to terrorism with clarity and resolve. For one, India is no longer willing to concede the fig leaf of an explanation often offered by Pakistan that terrorists were non-state actors acting independently of the state. Operation Sindoor is ongoing, but it is also a continuation of this new strategic approach which earlier manifested, less successfully, in the surgical strikes of 2016 and Balakot airstrikes of 2019. India is willing to engage with Pakistan diplomatically, but only on the central and relevant question of terrorism emanating from that country and the status of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Mr. Modi also made it clear that India would stay the course on the decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty. Though Mr. Modi did not directly join issue with U.S. President Donald Trump on his claim that his administration brokered the understanding between New Delhi and Islamabad, he was categorical in his assertion that India would be guided entirely by its national interest in deciding its future course of action. Further moves by India will depend on how Pakistan responds to the changed approach of India and the new realities.

Mr. Modi’s visit to Adampur, 100 km from the border and also a site of India’s Russian-made S-400 air defence system, disproved Pakistan’s claim that the base was hit during the recent military face off. That said, there is a need to insulate strategy from populist sloganeering and prime-time TRP wars. India’s stakes are high, and they must not be held hostage by the designs of Pakistan’s terrorists, which are of course unacceptable. Quiet diplomacy and covert operations may not be suitable for TRP media wars but can be extremely useful in the pursuit of the country’s strategic interests. While India should not be unsettled by Pakistan’s nuclear sabre-rattling, it is also time India took the lead with other partner countries to start a new global conversation on the risks of nuclear weapons. The dangers of a nuclear conflict are far too serious to be ignored, and discussions within India and the world should be cognisant of that. While India’s position against third-party interference in India-Pakistan relations is a historically established position, it must also build global opinion against Pakistan’s strategy of terrorism and nuclear blackmail.