A colleague visited India in April 2007. The city of New Delhi was decorated for the 14th SAARC summit and it was glowing with a new confidence of a nation convinced that it had cracked the code of prosperity. Despite many contrasting views compared to the India that I knew from Bollywood, it appeared that under Manmohan Singh, India was all set to take off. Its economy was rising, its policies were working, diplomacy was yielding results, and the cities were shining.

In 2007, Pakistan too was learning new lessons as democracy returned under the Charter of Democracy. What the country needed was not a borrowed model, but a theory of success rooted in its own geography, interests, challenges and resources. That year, it seemed as if the key decision-makers had agreed to turn our geo-strategic location into an asset, to open doors for trade, to uproot terrorism and to devolve power to the provinces. Pakistan also learnt perhaps to balance its foreign relations with those who shared this vision — starting with the United States, China, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and all its neighbours including India. We have traveled a new path since then.

Fast forward to 2025. Looking back nearly two decades, one can thank many politicians, thinkers, citizens, businessmen and even partners for contributing to Pakistan’s pursuit of stability. But hold your heartbeat ladies and gentlemen, because the real shocker is the guy that I am about to thank. The guy I never thought I’d every credit — Mr Narendar Modi. Yep, you heard it right.

The man sitting at the very top of India’s power pyramid has, ironically, done more to strengthen Pakistan than many of the countries that openly call themselves our friends. On paper, his policies were designed to project Indian strength and to box Pakistan in. But in practice, his actions looked less like India’s gain and more like Pakistan’s unintended advantage. The irony is that none of this was by design, what political scientists call the “backfire effect” — when a policy crafted to weaken an adversary ends up fortifying it instead.

Each time he tried to clip Pakistan’s wings, the outcome was the opposite: our resolve deepened, our institutions adjusted and our flight path grew stronger. Each time he tried to unleash India as a force, it would hit him back like

Newton’s second law of motion

I started writing this article in May, right after Pakistan’s stunning victory over India. But I thought — why not save it for a more memorable day? So here we are, September 17, Prime Minister Modi’s 75th birthday. If thanks are due, they may also be delivered with the cake. The irony writes itself. The unintended favors of Modi jee for Pakistan run in thousands. The list could fill volumes, but I’ll stick to the Top 10 actions that he took to weaken us which, instead worked like free fuel for Pakistan’s engine.

First Thank You, for Busting the Myth of Secular India

For decades Pakistan had been the lone skeptic in the room on India’s claim of being a secular country. For decades, Pakistan tried to tell the world that India’s secularism perception was in visible contrast to its reality. We were ignored, dismissed, even mocked. Then came Mr Modi who brought down not just the façade of secularism, but the pillars holding it up. From Gujarat riots in 2002 to Bihar elections in 2025, he is bulldozing the entire ecosystem on which secularism operates. What our newspapers, anchors and pamphlets failed to prove, Modi displayed in broad daylight. Today, it is not Pakistan’s media........

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