In a series from this week, we shall explore the various dimensions of the May 2025 India-Pakistan stand-off after the Pahalgam carnage on April 22, 2025.

First, what happened in the perceptual world? The aftermath of Pahalgam and Operation Bunyan Marsus (Iron Wall) should demonstrate 'strategic humility'. Miscalculations by Indian leaders – political and military – should never be forgiven in silence. In 'teaching Pakistan a lesson', India not only 'altered the regional equation', it also rehyphenated with Pakistan, something it loathed, after its hard-won Clinton-era de-hyphenation. And New Delhi unwittingly exposed itself to a parity with Islamabad that it vehemently denied under hubris, arrogance and over-confidence.

Rabid anchors like Arnab Goswami and military analysts like the froth-fuming Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakhshi and Major Gaurav Arya steered the debate about complex realities into loud nationalism, muting the voices of reason from the few and far between. They turned national strategy into a charade of slogans without substance. India, in doing so, lost its strategic narrative.

Intoxicated with its new-found economic relevance, India walked into the trap of 'buying and bullying into influence', only to lose both. It triggered the most dangerous regional escalation since Kargil without any investigation, without any shareable proof, without any satellite imagery, without any international inquiry and without remorse, just guided by 'nationalist theatrics', media jingoism and short-term political gains – all to abrogate Indus Water Treaty and humiliate Pakistan. And it failed.

A 'pauper' Pakistani response sent India suing for ceasefire, after being forced out of the skies, after targeted destruction on land,........

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