Operation Sindoor unprecedented, brilliant but our fight against terror a long one, say military veterans
Yet, for all its capabilities, India has shown restraint, choosing to only attack terror infrastructure, thus preventing an escalation. 'There was an enemy headquarters mere kilometres away from one of the nine sites we hit at Bahawalpur. But that wasn't our target, was it?' points out Siachen hero Lt Gen Sanjay Kulkarni.
'Our fight is and always has been,' the veteran elaborates, 'against terror outfits, and if this happens to manifest in Pakistan, well, that's just bad luck for them.'
Two, the precision of the strike was matched by the transparency with which news of the development was briefed to the nation — by a three-person panel comprising foreign secretary Vikram Misri, Wg Cdr Vyomika Singh and Col Sofiya Qureshi.
'They walked us through everything – why these nine sites were targeted, what's out there, and with clear visuals of the strike. It was surgical, and the entire operation, well thought-out,' explains Col S Dinny (retd), who served several tenures in counter-terrorism operations in J&K.
Cmde Srikant says it is a lesson out of 2019's Balakot airstrike and its post-operation fizz. 'Earlier, commanders never thought it necessary to gather 'proof', but post-Balakot, there is a realisation that a lack of palpable evidence allows narratives to spiral. This time, that gap was closed,' says Cmde Kesnur, former director of Maritime Warfare Centre.
'After all, battlefields today are more transparent - artificially, perhaps, but perception matters,' he adds. It signals, if anything, an India that has come to accept new age realities. Cmde G Prakash says, 'India's reaction has not been emotional. We've also taken the effort to show the world a broader context - the long-standing link between Pakistan and terrorism.'
Third, the optics, and Cmde G Prakash, who has extensive experience in operations and policy making, says, 'the press briefing oozed in symbolism.'
Indeed, you have the foreign secretary flanked by two senior women officers - one a Hindu, another a Muslim. Vikram, a civilian, in their midst – someone who was born and raised in Kashmir and who know the issues there well.
'Fittingly, the operation was called Sindoor,' points out Col Dinny, 'and we all know what it signifies and how it refers back to the Pahalgam incident – yet another layer of messaging.'
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Other than the then Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan—who is now with the BJP—demanding a ban on Sanathan Sanstha and Chidambaram questioning if the BJP and the RSS planned to condemn those organising the attacks, no senior leader made any strong statements on the arrests. Mumbai University's Dr Patil said, 'Using the term saffron terror had actually hurt the Congress even back then. In this political climate, it can't afford to push that agenda again. Some of the party's senior leaders admit in confidence that the Congress doesn't know how to present its stand on Hindutva properly.' Almost immediately after first using the term 'saffron terror' at a Congress conclave in Jaipur in 2013, former Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had apologised and said his comments were misunderstood, and that he did not mean to link any religion with terrorism. Years later, in 2024, Shinde in his book, Five Decades in Politics, distanced himself from the term saying he did not coin it, but had first read it in one of the confidential files of the Union Home Ministry. In the same thread, Gujarat Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi, speaking to the media in Delhi after the verdict Thursday, alleged that the term 'saffron terror' was coined by the then Union Home Secretary RK Singh, a former IAS officer who has had friction with Shinde, and joined the BJP in 2013. Political commentator Hemand Desai told ThePrint ahead of the Lok Sabha election last year too that the Congress in Maharashtra had found itself at the centre of a controversy when its leader of Opposition in the state Vijay Waddettiwar, quoting a book, said late IPS officer Hemant Karkare was killed by an RSS-linked police officer. Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. He was also the man who had led the investigation into the Malegaon blast case. 'Waddettiwar had to face a lot of flak for his comment. Now, with local body polls resembling a mini assembly election likely to come up, the Congress seems to have decided that let's not get into this sort of a debate at all,' Desai said. (Edited by Gitanjali Das) Also Read: 'Evil attempt' to malign Hindus rejected: RSS, VHP welcome 2008 Malegaon blast verdict
