After Pakistan’s brutal terror attack near Pahalgam in April last year, India launched Operation Sindoor. The Indian Air Force struck nine key terror targets in Pakistan and PoK and caused damage to several Pakistani military airfields. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new normal comprising a fitting reply to every terror attack and not tolerating Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail.

Questions were raised about India’s narrative management in the wake of Operation Sindoor. Nonetheless, the operation was a tactical success on more than one count. It was a well-publicised payback for Pakistan’s terror crimes. It validated the efficacy of some of India’s weapon systems and demonstrated India’s capability to carry out precision strikes deep inside Pakistan. Finally, it expanded the space for military action against Pakistan under the nuclear overhang.

But has Operation Sindoor moved India any closer to its strategic goals vis-à-vis Pakistan?

Strategic success can be assessed in relation to an endgame and India has no clearly defined endgame concerning Pakistan. The army-led establishment in Pakistan has regarded existence in opposition to India as an end in itself. In recent years, the Indian public discourse, while claiming a global role, has tended to be a mirror image of this approach and seems to be in a zero-sum competition with........

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