Jaishankar Hits Back At Opposition; Reiterates Trump Played No Role In India-Pak Truce
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Deccan Herald
22 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
In Varanasi, PM Modi dedicates success of Operation Sindoor to Mahadev, slams Opposition
Addressing a public meeting in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, the Prime Minister also accused the Congress of repeatedly insulting the valour of the armed forces and even terming 'Operation Sindoor' a "tamasha" (spectacle).
Economic Times
24 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Op Sindoor: Those who attack India will not survive even in 'paatal lok', says Modi
ANI Op Sindoor: PM Modi says those who attack India will not survive even in 'paatal lok' hell; takes jibe at Oppn for "crying along with Pakistan" Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a jibe at Congress and Samajwadi Party for raising questions over Operation Sindoor and alleged that they could not handle the pain Pakistan is going through and are "crying along with them." Addressing a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, he said, "Everyone understands that Pakistan is upset. But Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) cannot handle the pain that Pakistan is going through. There, the Aaka (masters) of the terrorists are crying, and here, Congress and SP are crying, seeing the condition of terrorists." On his first visit to Varanasi following the Pahalgam terrorist attack in April, PM Modi said that those who attack India "will not survive even in 'paatal lok' (hell)". Slamming Congress for MP Praniti Shinde's 'tamasha' remark for Operation Sindoor, he said that the party insults the valour of the Indian armed forces. "Congress is constantly insulting the valour of our forces. Congress has called Operation Sindoor a 'tamasha'... They dared to refer to our forces' valour and sisters' sindoor as 'tamasha', this is shamelessness," the Prime Minister said. Hitting back at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav who raised questions on the timing of 'Operation Mahadev', PM Modi termed it as vote bank politics."In this politics of vote bank and appeasement, the Samajwadi Party is no less. Their leaders in Parliament were questioning why the Pahalgam terrorists were killed on this particular day. Should I telephone them and ask them before taking any action? Anyone with common sense should be able to answer, do we need to wait to kill terrorists? Should we have given them a chance to flee?"PM Modi further alleged that the SP gave a clean chit to terrorists when it was in power."They are the same people who would give a clean chit to terrorists when they were in power in UP, and now they are upset when terrorists are killed. They have a problem with the name of the operation as Sindoor," PM Modi Minister Modi hailed Operation Sindoor and said that he avenged the loss of the Pahalgam terror attack with the blessings of Lord a public meeting, PM Modi dedicated the success of Operation Sindoor to Lord Mahadev. The Prime Minister said, "This is the first time I have come to Kashi after Operation Sindoor. 26 innocent civilians were mercilessly killed by terrorists in Pahalgam... My heart was full of sorrow. I had pledged to take revenge for my daughters' sindoor, and I fulfilled it with the blessings of Mahadev. I dedicate the success of Operation Sindoor to the feet of Mahadev." He assured that anyone messing with India will not be Modi said, "When there is injustice and terror in front, Mahadev adorns his 'Rudra roop'. The world saw this face of India during Operation Sindoor. Anyone who messes with India will not be spared even in 'pataal lok'."Indian armed forces carried out Operation Sindoor on May 7 to avenge the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, which killed 26 people.
News18
an hour ago
- News18
From Thirteen Days To X-Men: How Cold War Tension Became Pop Culture's Go-To Narrative
From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Doomsday Clock, Cold War paranoia gave pop culture its favourite script: countdowns, close calls, and the edge of annihilation When former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded to Donald Trump's economic taunts with a nuclear-laced warning, invoking the Soviet 'Dead Hand" system, a Cold War-era semi-automated retaliation protocol, Trump hit back within hours, ordering two US nuclear submarines into undisclosed 'appropriate regions." The platforms may have changed, missile silos back then, social media posts now, but the standoff feels familiar. Nuclear threats, strategic posturing, the world holding its breath. We've seen a version of this before. It starts the same way every time. A room. A red phone. A general's jaw clenched. A screen blinking with incoming missiles. Somewhere, a politician hesitates. Somewhere else, a clock ticks ominously toward midnight. Maybe it's a film. Maybe it's a game. Maybe it's a scene so overused you could storyboard it from memory. And yet, it still works. The stakes still feel unbearable. If pop culture has a favourite genre, it's the end of the world. And if it has a favourite moodboard, it's pulled straight from the Cold War: the iconic mushroom clouds of nuclear blasts, satellite feeds, presidents sweating through their shirts, and a symbolic clock that's always just a few seconds from catastrophe. The Crisis That Launched A Thousand Scripts October 1962. A Soviet ship is spotted heading towards Cuba. American spy planes snap grainy black-and-white images of missile silos under construction. In Washington, then President John F. Kennedy orders a naval blockade, or a 'quarantine", as the US diplomatically called it. In Moscow, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev fumes. For nearly two weeks, the world sits on a knife's edge. One wrong move, one itchy trigger finger, and the Cold War could become a hot one, with nukes flying over the Atlantic and cities wiped off the map. In the end, diplomacy wins. The Soviets agree to remove their missiles from Cuba; the US quietly withdraws its own missiles from Turkey. But what lingers isn't relief, it's the realisation that the world came this close to oblivion. And that kind of tension? It doesn't just end. It seeps into stories. For filmmakers and writers, the Cuban Missile Crisis offered something irresistible: a real-world thriller with global stakes, impossible decisions, and the ever-present question — what if it had gone the other way? Meanwhile, The Clock Was Already Ticking Long before Soviet missiles showed up in Cuba, the anxiety had already taken shape, in the form of a metaphor. In 1947, shaken by Hiroshima and the birth of the atomic age, a group of scientists from the Manhattan Project created the Doomsday Clock. It wasn't a device you could set your watch to — it was a symbol, printed on the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, showing just how close humanity was to 'midnight", a.k.a. annihilation. Unlike regular clocks, this one didn't tick forward with time; it moved based on how badly humans were behaving. Nuclear weapons? Tick. Climate change? Tick. AI gone rogue? Tick. In January this year, the clock was set to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it's ever been. Not just because of war, but because of everything else humanity has added to the danger pile: emerging tech, global instability, failing climate pledges. But what made the Clock powerful wasn't just its scientific backing; it was its cinematic quality. The countdown. The symbolism. The mounting dread. It didn't just belong in policy reports. It belonged in stories. Hollywood's Favourite Crisis The first major filmmaker to seize the emotional fallout of 1962 was Stanley Kubrick. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) wasn't just a film; it was a cultural detonation. Just two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kubrick turned the unthinkable into something darkly hilarious and deeply unsettling. A rogue general launches a nuclear strike. Bureaucrats panic. A wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi scientist with a mind of his own cackles about unstoppable doomsday devices. It was satire, but it felt too real. That was the point. Then came Topaz (1969), Alfred Hitchcock's take on Cold War espionage. Based on a real Soviet defector, the film unfolds like a chess match, with double agents, Paris backchannels, and missile secrets traded in whispered French. It doesn't have explosions; it has paranoia. In The Missiles of October (1974), we go inside the White House itself. This docudrama strips away fiction and focuses on tense decision-making, backroom debates, and Kennedy's own ethical calculus. It's low on visual drama, high on historical claustrophobia. Decades later came Thirteen Days (2000), a straight-laced, high-stakes retelling of the Cuban standoff. Kevin Costner plays JFK's adviser, navigating a labyrinth of generals, secrets, and political brinkmanship. It's moody, dialogue-heavy, and built for history buffs. Not all films stuck to realism. X-Men: First Class (2011) rewrites the Cuban Crisis as a mutant showdown, with Magneto pulling missiles out of the sky and the standoff becoming a superpowered morality play. The metaphors are loud, but the tension still Cold War. And then there's The Courier (2021), a more recent Cold War thriller, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, the British businessman turned reluctant spy who helped ferry missile intelligence out of Moscow just before the Cuban standoff. Tick, Tick, Boom: The Clock In Pop Culture The Doomsday Clock has become a universal language in fiction. Think of every scene where a red countdown flashes on a screen. Every moment where someone mutters, 'We have ten minutes until impact." Every dramatic voiceover that begins with, 'If we don't act now…" That's the Clock talking. In Watchmen, the iconic 1986 graphic novel and the 2009 Zack Snyder film, the clock isn't just symbolism, it's part of the story. The fear of nuclear war doesn't just linger, it saturates the world. In Interstellar, the clock becomes ecological. The planet is dying, and time literally dilates. In Avengers: Endgame, the clock is personal, and time travel as the only hope to undo the catastrophe. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the Cuban Crisis is woven into the gameplay, complete with historical cutscenes and paranoia-laced missions. And in games like Fallout, the clock has already struck midnight, the apocalypse has happened, and you're surviving in the ruins. From Science To Symbol, From Symbol To Spectacle Here's why these two Cold War artefacts refuse to fade: they give structure to chaos. The Crisis gives you a timeline. The Clock gives you a countdown. Together, they're a writer's dream, built-in stakes, moral ambiguity, and a ticking tension that you don't have to invent. It's already real. They're also flexible. Want to make a political drama? Use the Crisis. Want to make an action blockbuster? Throw in the Clock. Want to blend both? You've got Strangelove. Even when the threat isn't nuclear anymore, think climate collapse, pandemic panic, rogue tech, the formula remains: a slow-build problem, a looming deadline, a hero trying to stop the worst. The clock ticks on. Hollywood's Favourite Ending: The Apocalypse, On Repeat We love the apocalypse not because we want it, but because we want to beat it. top videos View all The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Doomsday Clock gave pop culture a ready-made script: the standoff, the countdown, the impossible choice. And decades later, we're still hooked. Whether it's a period drama, a superhero showdown, or a video game mission, chances are you'll find echoes of Cuba and that ticking clock, pop culture's favourite way to imagine the end… and maybe how to stop it. About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @ More Get Latest Updates on Movies, Breaking News On India, World, Live Cricket Scores, And Stock Market Updates. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : Cold War Doomsday Clock Nuclear threat view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: August 02, 2025, 17:34 IST News explainers From Thirteen Days To X-Men: How Cold War Tension Became Pop Culture's Go-To Narrative Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
