First Anniversary of Operation Sindoor

 Close to the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, the name given to India's strike on Pakistan in response to the latter's terror attack in Kashmir, India's defense minister Rajnath Singh said “We stopped the Operation voluntarily, on our own terms".

If so, why was the ceasefire announced not by India but by Trump ? India reiterated Trump's announcement after an hour the US President proclaimed it on Truth Social, repeating his claim time and again taking credit for stopping the war between two nuclear power neighbors. So far India has never contradicted Trump.

It was followed by Modi telling our Parliament last July that India achieved its objectives by attacking terrorist camps across the border. Such a claim by striking largely empty terrorist training camps reeks with strategic naiveté. Timing is an essential element of any war. After the Pahalgam terrorist massacre, India waited for 15 days before launching the short-lived May 7–10 Operation Sindoor, giving Pakistan ample time to disperse assets and empty key camps with the surprise element thrown through the roof. No high value terrorist was eliminated. If a few terrorists perished such state reared figures are expendable, easily replaced through thevast Madrassah networks inside Pakistan. How then were India’s strategic objectives served by targeting only low-level proxies?

Operation Sindoor was a tactical success for India, but a strategic failure, one that left Pakistan emboldened. The cessation of hostilities after just three days helped to rehabilitate Pakistan’s international standing, particularly in USA and Islamic world, where it was seen as having held its own against a much stronger adversary. That perception proved consequential, contributing to the emergence of the Saudi-Pakistan mutual defense pact and Trump’s embrace of Pakistan. Turkey and Azerbaijan came out in open support of Pakistan which ended up driving its narrative.
Truth is the first casualty of war. In spite of giving a bloody nose to our western neighbor, India had lost few fighter Aircrafts including the much fancied Rafael which costs $245 million a piece. Pakistan too possesses Nuclear and Missile technology. Forget building missiles, Pakistan, a basket case of poverty cannot even manufacture a Diwali rocket on its own. So, how it managed to acquired these ?
The answer is China for whom Pakistan is the cheapest way to keep India, its only nuclear adversary at bay. Pakistan has done a good job doing China's bid. The Middle Kingdom and Asia's rising giant doesn't consider India as its equal and often mocks at it. The best example if so many videos and reels on social media mocking India and praising their all time ally (in reality their slave) Pakistan which went viral during the days of OperationSindoor.

After the ceasefire was announced, a bunch of our Netas and Babus dispersed around the world with the goal of painting Pakistan as a pariah state and a sponsor of terror. Forget about convincing the world powers, except Sashi Tharoor no one could articulate well India’s position. Looking in a holistic way, Pakistan is not only important to USA, it is important to many other countries as well, including our all weather friend Russia for various strategic reasons, simply because of its very geographic region and it having nuclear weapons.

However brilliant our Foreign policy may be, when push comes to shove, as we saw during Operation Sindoor, the rest of the world mostly remained neutral. China, Turkey, Azerbaijan (it hardly matters anyway) sided with Pakistan - overtly or covertly. For their own selfish reasons the world powers who matter will continue to hyphenate between India-Pakistan in unforeseen future for some time to come. Foreign policy is filled with hypocrisy and double standards. It always was, will continue to be the same.