Imran Malik
India’s current political leadership’s relentless pursuit of Hindutva has caused a massive paradigm shift in the Indian body politic. It has clearly moved from secularism to an essentially Hindu-dominated avatar, impacting all aspects and sectors of the Indian nation, its society and even its military. This has led to petty domestic political compulsions overwhelming sound democratic principles and judgements, moral and ethical values, and even serious geopolitical and geostrategic paradigms. Its ill-effects have rippled and radiated into the regional strategic environment, vitiating it severely.
At the international level, PM Modi has repeatedly failed to look President Trump in the eye and take a stand in India’s national interests. Post the defeat in May 2025 and President Trump’s statements thereof, he has avoided him like the plague. He did not attend any international event where President Trump was to be present. He just could not face the ground (and air) realities that President Trump kept reminding him, his nation and the world of, endlessly. Was it a damning dearth of moral courage and leadership qualities? He only attended the G-20 summit in South Africa because President Trump had decided to skip it. This was conduct unbecoming of a PM/leader of ostensibly the largest democracy and the most populous country in the world. Furthermore, the BJP leadership and the Indian military too have displayed a blatant lack of moral courage by not accepting their losses and defeat in the May 2025 clash. They ought to have publicly acknowledged the supreme sacrifices of their fallen airmen (pilots) and soldiers and recognised them suitably. Instead, PM Modi’s government and its sponsored media have remained adamant on claiming imaginary, utopian victories despite the well-researched analyses, reports and verdicts of world leaders, renowned military strategists, aviation industry experts, international media and even some sane, true voices from within India, to the contrary.
At the domestic level, the BJP Government created yet another false flag operation just before the Bihar elections. The vehicle-based improvised explosion in New Delhi had the desired effect on election day in Bihar and helped the BJP to a macabre win. However, unlike the false flag operations at Pulwama, Pahalgam etc, this time PM Modi and the Indian military realised that “discretion was the much better part of valour” and did not cross the LOC or the international border with Pakistan. The “operational pause on Operation Sindoor” continued unabated and the much-publicised Operation Sindoor 2.0 never materialised. The May 2025 defeat has obviously had a more-than-sobering effect upon the misplaced hubris and megalomania of the BJP government and the Indian military!
Quite unsurprisingly, the Indian military now seems to be undergoing a basic paradigm shift in its professional stance/outlook too. From a thorough, secular, professional force it seems to be shifting, quite conspicuously, to a blatantly “saffronised”, Hindutva-driven outfit, focused on religiously pursuing the political goals of the BJP government. Seeking the BJP government’s patronage seems to be overtaking sound professional traditions, character and judgement. The Indian Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), the Army, Air Force and Navy Chiefs have all started parroting the Hindutva narrative laid down by the BJP/political leadership at the calamitous cost of professionalism and perhaps even nationalism. This was epitomised by a rather piteous, sorry-looking Indian Air Chief, bizarrely claiming to have downed “numerous” PAF aircraft, some four to five months after the clash was over and Indian losses (7-0) had been verified and accepted by all and sundry. This did not behove an officer, a gentleman and commander of arguably the fourth largest air force in the world. Instead of proffering untrue and unfounded claims of “kills”, he could have followed the more honourable tradition and resigned. He might have saved his and the IAF’s standing and reputation with contemporary air forces and in international military circles. It would have saved the morale of the men and women he commanded from going into a fatal tailspin. As it is, the military world frowns upon all such obviously fraudulent claims by militaries or their commanders anywhere. Like the BJP leadership, the Indian military leadership too now seems to reside in the same time warp of many millennia ago, a state of mind from which the former refuses to grow out of. The delusional ideals of Akhand Bharat, being the centre of power, the sole net security provider in the region at large, being accepted as the dominant South Asian hegemon etc — all ambitions seem to have been lost in the wake of the May 2025 clash with Pakistan!
On the bilateral front, India’s multidimensional media and diplomatic offensives and Afghanistan-based terrorism against Pakistan continue unremittingly. India carried out a large tri-service exercise in the general area of Rajasthan, opposite Pakistan’s Sindh province recently. The hyperbolic rhetoric of the Indian CDF, Army, Navy and Air Chiefs about removing Pakistan from the world map was unrelenting though thoroughly impracticable and fanciful. Furthermore, they reiterated their intent to “reclaim” Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) from Pakistan. Later on, Mr Rajnath Singh, their defence minister, revealed India’s intent to capture/conquer Pakistan’s Sindh province too. Was this a futile, pathetic attempt at military coercion or have the Indians really started believing their own self-serving propaganda, disinformation and fake news? There is a very wide gap between the real military capabilities and capacities of the Indian military, the diatribes of the BJP leaders and their strategic ambitions. The twain will never meet. Such delusional harangues and arrogance could lead to fatal miscalculations at the strategic level — as the Indian claims on Pakistani territories indicate.
Are the BJP Government and the Indian military now aiming at a space-oriented strategy with the stated intent to capture/conquer AJ&K, GB and Sindh?
The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army. He can be reached at im.k846@gmail.com and tweets @K846Im.
Courtesy
