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Both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have vowed to get justice for Pahalgam terror attack victims
PM Modi and Amit Shah (right) mentioned the attack in their speeches. (PTI File)
2025 is not 2019 and definitely not 2016. Not because India is short of options or lacks political will, but it has to innovate to keep the surprise element intact.
In 2016, a surgical strike in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, inflicting heavy casualties, was India’s bold response 10 days after the Uri attack that claimed 18 jawans, surprising Pakistan.
In 2019, Balakot airstrike was an even more audacious effort where India targeted a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group. What made it audacious? It was much deeper — in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The airstrike was in response to the Pulwama attack – a suicide attack on February 14 that year, which was claimed by JeM and killed 40 Indian troops. When Pakistan was expecting another surgical strike, they got an airstrike, again taking them aback.
The element of surprise in any response is key. Pakistan cannot know and should not predict what’s coming their way. And that needs time to regroup, re-strategise. That is probably why you have Prime Minister Narendra Modi in no uncertain terms calling the bluff of Pakistan, but not sounding the war bugle as yet. When the attack at Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists took place, the Prime Minister was in Jeddah. The fact that he skipped the official dinner and returned 24 hours before his scheduled arrival is a testament to his awareness, not just to his duty, but the anger 140 crore Indians felt. But beyond his anger, Modi’s composure took over, because only a calm mind with the advice of the best in the profession can spring a surprise for the third time on Pakistan, which will not be an easy job. After repeated public humiliation, irrespective of its propaganda to prove otherwise, the Pakistan Army has to prove it can thwart an Indian attack to its suspicious domestic audience.
MODI’S REACTIONS
But if one reads between the lines, the PM’s anger at Pakistan often overflows to defy his calm demeanour. Take his first tweet on the Pahalgam terror attack for instance, that began with condolences and ended with his resolve to fight terror. But two sentences stood out, “Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice…they will not be spared!…”
This was posted even before his flight landed at Delhi’s Palam technical airport.
The second giveaway seemed deliberate. Just a day after the incident, the Prime Minister had to send out a message that terrorists won’t stop our development, lives and hence flew down to Bihar’s Madhubani where he launched development works worth Rs 13,480 crore. Towards the end of his speech, he chose to speak on Pahalgam for the first time. Interestingly, despite addressing the Hindi heartland, he spoke in English, so it reaches every Indian. “The punishment will be significant and stringent, which these terrorists would have never even thought about…Today, from the soil of Bihar, I want to say to the whole world that India will identify, trace and punish every terrorist, supporter and conspirator. We’ll pursue them to the end of the Earth. They will be punished beyond their imagination,” he warned.
Talking about elements of surprise and degrees of vengeance, no words summed up the Pahalgam attack like this by PM Modi. This sounds eerily similar to a similar warning given in March 2019, in Ahmedabad soon after the Balakot airstrike, where he said, “They are saying airstrike was for electoral gains. Where there were elections when we carried out surgical strikes? Humara siddhant hai, hum ghar me ghus ke marenge (It is our principle to take the attack inside the home).”
The third fact that top government sources say the Prime Minister has given a “free hand” to the armed forces during the last Cabinet Committee on Security meeting, to respond to Pakistan, is a clear indication that PM Modi is not sitting idle, but wants India’s response to be creative enough to surprise Pakistan again. The mode, targets, and timing of the response are left to the security forces, Modi said at a meeting attended by the Defence Minister, NSA, CDS, and the chiefs of the Army, Air Force, and Navy, say top government sources.
When one country keeps using one option after another in pursuit to shock the enemy, and if a full-blown war is not on the cards (as PM Modi has often said, this is not the era of wars), then one has to think out of the box — which is precisely going on, suggest government sources.
SHAH’S REACTION
But the 140 crore angry Indians who are baying for revenge seem not to get the nuanced situation and neither are they expected to. If social media is a barometer, their frustration is palpable there, which worries the BJP that it may be politically manipulated against it. So it requires a voice that echoes the mass sentiment from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
It was Shah’s first public event since the dastardly attack, and he used the opportunity to set the narrative right. “Whoever carried out the dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam will not be spared. We will hunt down each and every perpetrator of the Pahalgam terror attack. Don’t think that you have won by killing 26 people. Every one of you will be made answerable,” the Home Minister said at an event in Delhi.
While making the threats to terrorists, he reminded Indians that the the Modi Sarkar will hunt them down. “Har vyakti ko chun chun ke jawab bhi milega, jawab bhi diya jayega… This is the Narendra Modi government; no one will be spared.”
Basically, what Shah intended to say to Indians was this: Keep calm and trust Modi, Pahalgam revenge is loading.
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