The latest warmongering antics from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not rooted in strength or strategy but in desperation. They stem from a political playbook drenched in paranoia and populism.

When a country drapes its insecurities in the tricolour and sends its troops across borders without military foresight, it’s not valour but vanity. On the night of May 7, Indian armed forces launched an unprovoked assault. Under the false pretence of targeting religious seminaries allegedly harbouring militants, Indian warplanes violated international law and moral decency by striking residential areas.

This was not just a tactical miscalculation, but a strategic self-humiliation. The Modi-led government, intoxicated by ultranationalist fervour, decided to raise the stakes far beyond rhetoric. This reckless aggression was a catastrophic misreading of military balance and regional stability. And while India hoped to whip up a storm of patriotic hysteria to cover its internal failures, particularly in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), it underestimated the cost of rousing a neighbour whose military readiness doesn’t rely on loud declarations, but on results.

It is crucial to understand that this latest confrontation is not a one-off anomaly but part of a calculated pattern. Since Narendra Modi assumed office, India's posture towards Pakistan has shifted from hostility to outright recklessness. The 2019 Balakot episode, which ended........

© The News International