Scarcely had the embers of Operation Sindoor mellowed, did the world wake up to the eruption of Operation Rising Lion in the Israel-Iran conflict. Even as both operations continue, the world’s geopolitical calculus is metamorphosing into a menacing form characterised by VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Even as militaries mobilise, economic and informational warfare are well underway—China’s latest restrictions on rare earth magnet exports threaten to bring the mammoth Indian automotive industry to a grinding halt. Salvos are fired not only from missile silos, but through supply chains as well.

In this threnody of war, something fundamental seems to have crystallised in India’s geopolitical thinking vis-à-vis our strategic perspective on Pakistan. For the first time ever, we appear to have correctly contextualised that Pakistan’s ideological basis of waging war against Bhārat and Hindus aligns fully with the economic and political interests of its army, and that the same cannot be corrected by us through constructive engagement. Second, our government has realised that our internal and external enemies form a single continuum—one cannot be treated as separate from the other. Hence, illegals being deported, rioters’ houses being bulldozed, and armed attack, all deal with what is essentially the same issue.

Previously, our strategic outlook was to achieve a reorientation in Pakistan, such that it ceases the operations of its terror industry. This was attempted first through détente (social courtesies with Nawaz Sharif), then with disengagement (terror and talks do not go together), and finally by taking punitive action (Balakot). Despite all this, it was impossible to make Pakistan stop using terror as state policy simply because far too many interests depended on its continued intransigence to serve multifarious purposes.

With this........

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