The unseemly spat among political parties over the post-Pahalgam global outreach may well have disappointed or even disgusted ordinary Indians. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that Operation Sindoor hasn’t concluded — it has merely been paused — it would have seemed premature to ease up on the national solidarity that was evident after the horrible Pahalgam massacre of April 22. It is a pointer to the fragility of India’s militaristic impulses that the regression to democratic petulance has proved so easy.

In the coming days, as the likelihood of another bout of rocket warfare between India and Pakistan slowly recedes, there will be a rush to return to normal life. The temporary suspension of the Indian Premier League, India’s favourite summer entertainment, was perhaps the most important indicator of an India-Pakistan war turning real.
Now that the chase for the quickest 50 runs has resumed, it can be safely said that the conflict was remarkably short-lived.

That everyday conversation is back to betting on cricket and deciphering the mind of President Donald Trump is reassuring. It establishes that unlike societies that take inspiration from waging Holy Wars, Hindu India has other mundane priorities. India’s ability to bear grudges is too casual. It is therefore more than likely that before long there will arise demands to bury the hatchet with Pakistan. The old habit of do-gooders rushing to the Wagah border to light candles of peace will possibly never resume. However, courtesy the magic of Zoom calls, we are likely to see peace and goodwill dialogues involving noble souls from both sides of the Radcliffe Line.

The Indian side will naturally see the participation of those who debunked Operation Sindoor for being wrapped in patriarchy and those who marched with red flags in Calcutta protesting the hardships to Pakistani farmers by the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. As for Pakistan, since a disproportionate chunk of its elite now has dual nationality and lives overseas, there will be no shortage of paid-up Aman ki Asha activists representing themselves.

There are many reasons why the inclination to see Pakistan as a part of our extended family should be firmly resisted.

First, since tensions began mounting in the aftermath of the April 22 killings in Pahalgam, Pakistan’s spin doctors (whose effectiveness should never be underestimated) have attempted to shift the focus from the targeted killings of Hindu tourists to a larger debate on Kashmir’s so-called battle for self-determination. Taking their cue from the way Hamas moulded Western perception after the much more devastating massacre of Israelis across the Gaza border, friends of The Resistance Front which carried out the killings tried something similar. They shifted tack to the disaffected Islamists in Kashmir. In short, the political gains of the Modi government’s pacification of a troubled region after the abrogation of Article 370 and its successful conduct of free and fair assembly elections were sought to be nullified.

This has partially succeeded. While Indian authorities sought to desperately play down the sectarian dimension of the targeted killings in Pahalgam, the massacre of Hindus was highlighted within Pakistan to invoke Islamic solidarity. It is important to remember that while India invariably seeks to paper over the Islamism of the separatists in Kashmir, it is painted as virtuous religiosity in Pakistan.

The two approaches are radically different. It is instructive to remember that the ethnic cleansing of the Hindu minority from the Kashmir Valley was sought to be censored out of ‘respectable’ discourse in India for at least six years after 1990. Even now, the authenticity of events depicted in the film, The Kashmir Files, is challenged in elite circles.

The ‘secular’ squeamishness over the character of the disturbances in Kashmir has had unintended consequences. While Pakistan successfully painted the Kashmir battle as a lofty Islamic crusade before Muslims in the Islamic world and acquired religious credit for it, India could never go beyond the charge that this was an insurgency organised from Pakistan. The nature of the civilisational challenge posed by pan-Islamist radicalism was rarely ,if ever, highlighted in the official Indian discourse. Decision-makers in India should ponder if the Kashmir issue should be presented to the world community as Pakistan’s pursuit of the unfinished agenda of Partition or a civilisational assault on India by the progenies of Osama bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed.

There is no approach that is bereft of risks. Yet, it is now clear that Indian diplomacy cannot skirt the awkward reality of Islamist challenge.

Secondly, while the available evidence suggests that India inflicted some grave damage on Pakistan’s military assets on the night of May 9-10, it is unlikely that the full details of its vulnerability are known to its domestic audience. It is easy to snigger at the melodramatic announcement of victory by the Pakistan prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, last week and the subsequent victory rally featuring the cricketer, Shahid Afridi. However, it is prudent to recognise the grim reality of public opinion in Pakistan believing that it emerged victorious from the four-day conflict. The belief in some media circles in the West that being sympathetic to Pakistan helps bring down Modi a notch or two should also be factored in.

Considering that Pakistan has a self-image of Muslim invincibility — recall the boast by Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1965 that one Pakistani soldier more than equalled 10 Hindus — it will probably take something resembling the surrender of lieutenant-general A.A.K. Niazi in Dhaka in 1971 to convince its public opinion that it is hazardous to take on India militarily. As of today, even otherwise well-informed Pakistanis believe that the Pahalgam massacre was a false flag operation by a crafty Modi government and that India suffered unacceptably high losses of its combat aircraft (the estimates range from three to six) on May 9.

It may well be argued that Pakistan’s capacity for self-delusion is very high and that there are idiots in that country who believe that the war of 1971 wasn’t lost. This, alas, is true. Regardless of what is suggested on Indian TV channels, there is yet no disinclination in Islamabad to refrain from sponsoring terror attacks on India. In policy terms, it suggests that it would be a grave error for India’s decision-makers to ease the pressure on Pakistan. The case for India using its leverage over Indus waters to create difficulties for Pakistan’s non-combatants is compelling. Additionally, Pakistan must also be encouraged to devote a greater share of its mind space and resources to making some of its alienated ethnic groups, such as those in Baluchistan, feel more Pakistani. This will generate its own backlash.

Operation Sindoor is still a work in progress. It cannot conclude without the killers and their patrons experiencing greater pain and retributive justice.