Over a fortnight after the guns fell silent, the political marketing of Operation Sindoor continues its drumbeat across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday began a two-day tour of his home state of Gujarat, holding road shows and rallies in Vadodara, Dahod, Bhuj and Ahmedabad to “express gratitude to the armed forces” for the military offensive. His speeches were peppered with references to himself.

“Atank failane walon ne sapne mein bhi nahi socha hoga Modi se muqabla karna kitna mushkil hota hai (The terrorists would not in their worst nightmare have imagined how difficult it’s to challenge Modi),” he told the day’s first rally, in Dahod, following what was virtually a victory parade on an SUV in Vadodara.

At his second rally, in Bhuj, Modi issued a warning to Pakistan that seemed straight out of the Bollywood scriptwriter’s manual.

“Sukh chain ki zindagi jio, roti khao… warna meri goli toh hai hi (Live in peace, eat bread… otherwise my bullet is there),” he said.

“This is just the beginning,” a BJP insider said. “Modiji will be conducting more such road shows and rallies themed on Operation Sindoor across the country.”

The Prime Minister is scheduled to travel to Uttar Pradesh and poll-bound Bihar later this week.

“Modi is likely to hold road shows in Kanpur and Patna, and meet the family of one of the Pahalgam victims,” a BJP leader said.

At Dahod, Modi said women had chosen him as the “messenger” to convey their congratulations to the armed forces.

“Before coming here, I was in Vadodara. There, mothers and sisters came in their thousands to congratulate our armed forces. They chose me as their messenger for this pious job and I bow before Matru Shakti for this,” Modi said.

“If anyone tries to wipe the sindoor off our sisters, they will be wiped out,” he added, asserting the terrorists had challenged 140 crore Indians and as their Prime Minister he couldn’t have remained silent.

Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday sought make the link between Modi and Operation Sindoor deeper, providing the first official acknowledgement that it was the Prime Minister who had named the military operation after sindoor.

Shah told a rally in Nanded, Maharashtra, that Modi’s intent was to convey a message to the world that the “sindoor of our mothers and sisters was not cheap” and that “anyone who tries to harm the sindoor will get a reply (drenched in) blood”.

Pak bashing

At Dahod, Modi said Pakistan’s sole objective was to pursue its enmity with India.

“After Partition, the newly formed country had just one goal — to hate India and to try to stop our progress. But we have only one goal — to keep moving forward, to eliminate poverty, and to build a Viksit Bharat,” he said.

At Bhuj, he sought to address the people of Pakistan. “From the sacred land of Kutch, I also want to address the citizens of Pakistan: What have you really gained? Today, India stands as the fourth-largest economy in the world — and look at the condition you are living in. Ask yourselves — who destroyed your children’s future? It is terrorism,” he said.

“Your army runs its own agenda. Your government and military have made terrorism a business — a source of income at the cost of your lives and your future. The children of Pakistan must know the truth — that their suffering is the result of a system that fuels terror instead of building a nation. Now, it is up to the people of Pakistan to decide: Is this the path you want for your future?”

At Dahod, the Prime Minister spoke in Gujarati while claiming he had made Gujarat the country’s topmost state with a spree of development projects, but switched to Hindi as he held forth on Operation Sindoor.

Gujarat has been a poor performer on human development indices, including malnutrition and infant mortality apart from education and health in general.

Modi inaugurated or laid the foundations for several development projects at multiple places in Gujarat on Monday.

N-bogey

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar was dismissive when asked during an interview with the German newspaper FAZ how far India and Pakistan had been from a nuclear conflict during Operation Sindoor.

“Very, very far away.… At no point was a nuclear level reached. There is a narrative as if everything that happens in our part of the world leads directly to a nuclear problem. That disturbs me a lot because it encourages terrible activities like terrorism,” he said.

“If anything, much more is happening with the nuclear issue in your part of the world.”