The one question that everyone needs to ask is simply this – what, or rather who was India’s biggest support during the recent conflict with Pakistan. We saw how China stood by Pakistan, how the United States, Japan, Russia, UK, France….everyone supported the IMF loan to Pakistan with only India abstaining. Who stood by India? Did one single country come out unequivocally in our support, the way China and even Turkey were backing Pakistan? And yet India held her ground. This is because her biggest strength came from within, it is the people of India that stood united behind the government. This is what gave Prime Minister Modi and our armed forces the biggest support they needed.
Lets begin with the political class. The Opposition stood firm behind the Prime Minister’s decision to launch Operation Sindoor. Post Pahalgam a go-ahead was given by the political class to the PM to take whatever actions needed and when he did, no questions were asked. Whatever questions there were, are coming now at a time when there seems to be a ceasefire, or atleast a pause in place. In fact some of the faces that articulated India’s viewpoint on the global stage came from the Opposition with Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP and Chairman of the Standing Committee on External Affairs taking the lead. He was not fielded by the government or even the opposition but as he says, did so in his capacity as an Indian. That he is one of the more articulate faces in India today and has his own credibility on the global stage gave him – and India – the extra heft he needed to get our point of view across. It was a view that needed to be voiced as Pakistan has proved that it is an expert at managing narratives. We needed to counter their fake propaganda and Tharoor did an excellent job. Others who spoke up included Assaduddin Owaisi and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Another source of strength were the people of India. Despite Pakistan’s best attempts to divide us on communal lines, starting from the nature of the Pahalgam attack, the Hindus and Muslim remained united, as Indians first. Later during Operation Sindoor Pakistan made a false claim that India was targeting Nankana Sahib gurudwara and had even planned to attack the Golden Temple and blame it on Pakistan. However no one bought this cheap attempt to divide the Hindus and Sikhs. This display of communal harmony was also singled out for praise by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri during each one of his daily briefings. As he commented, “India’s steadfast unity is a challenge for Pakistan which is trying to impart a communal hue to the situation by claiming that India is targeting Nankana sahib gurudwara, or even the ludicrous claim that India is firing missiles at Amristar.”
This unity has indeed been our biggest strength and one hopes that it remains so even in the aftermath as we try and take stock of what the PM refers to as the “new normal” between India and Pakistan.
