These days with so many people vociferously loquacious, voices of lesser mortals are drowned in a cacophony of expert views and opinions. Living in a democratic country all have a right to speak and all claim a right to be heard. Be that it may, the recent unprecedented military action into Pakistan, Op Sindoor, exhibited various emotions both natural and artificial. I am aware there are many who want “facts”. That will depend on what one is looking for. Was (or more likely “is”), as the Operation Sindoor has not yet been called off only a military action? Though the stated military “aim” of the operation can be said to be achieved, the political aim (always an aim plus any military action) is still some distance away. The endgame is still some ways away.

Now the fight is about whether and who will declare victory, stalemate or defeat. The successful action of destroying the state-sponsored terror camps in Pakistan by India on the intervening night of 6/7 May is by no measure a victory. It is at best a stern message. Though India has “spoken”, has it been heard? The traditional narratives are all on display all over the world. The usual condescending rhetoric by the Western nations. One wonders what in hell are they scared of to call a spade a spade, as some may say. 

Western hypocrisy

An example of the hypocrisy of the West – “When something happens in Europe, it is the world’s problem. Europe does not have to care what happens elsewhere in the world”. A famous quote of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar which comes up in many panel discussions on foreign affairs around the world.  If Russia attacks Ukraine, India should stop buying Russian oil and cease trade with Russia conforming to Western sanctions. 

The world as per the West is a celebration of the Global North. A section of Northern nations considers it a travesty of morality to celebrate anything good in the developing nations and constantly look to preach the “lesser mortals” of the South.  Some others simply feel that life must go on according to Western “values” totally devoid of sentimentalities. To them cross border terrorism targeting India be damned. Probably the West will soon realise that one can’t harness time by stopping the clock. The world has moved on.

Deluge of information

These days there is also an unending deluge of information flowing into my smartphone, Kindle and laptop – via email, WhatsApp, Twitter (X), Viber and such; newspapers get delivered into my Kindle fire from all over the world notwithstanding earthquakes, floods or terror attacks. Along with these there is YouTube with innumerable news channels and think tanks holding unending panel discussions with all sorts of “experts” participating in varying degrees of enthusiasm and ventilating skills. Then there is this army of independent podcasters numbering in millions, trumpeting concocted theories on any and all subjects. Thankfully, for good or for bad, all narratives are not on a one way road.

False equivalence 

The Pahalgam terror attack exposes Pakistan’s continued use of military trained jihad radicals under state sponsorship on its soil, which demands decisive global sanctions and diplomatic censure of that country. India must lead efforts to choke terror financing, correct false narratives, and hold Rawalpindi accountable before more innocent lives are lost not only in India but anywhere in the world. International law is clear. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter forbids the use of force “by or on behalf of” a state.

Instead of calling out Pakistan, it is seen that in the wake of the Pahalgam massacre in cold blood and by Pakistan state-sponsored terrorists blatantly giving it a religious hue, terrorists the world over outsource outrage to hashtags. Within hours of the Pahalgam massacre, think-tankers in London were already blaming “Hindu majoritarian policies.” This false equivalence insults the dead and launders the killer’s manifesto. Kashmir is no longer a remote valley; it is the litmus test of global resolve against state-sponsored terror for reasons other than the wellbeing of its people. Pakistan’s duplicity is an open dossier. FATF grey-listing (2018-22) barely dented its war-chest because petrodollars kept the financial arteries open. Arun Shourie labelled this “strategic mendicancy milking Western fears of a failing nuclear state while fertilising jihad". The Pahalgam attack proves the scam endures. Belgian rifles cost money, satellite phones need airtime, and a month’s training of a terrorist costs about USD 5,000 per recruit. That cash did not fall from Himalayan pine trees. Narrative control is equally vital. Facts must be allowed to ruin theory. Fact: unarmed tourists were shot for refusing a doctrinal password. Any analysis omitting these axioms is propaganda on behalf of the terrorists and their handlers.  The death of innocents at the hand of the terrorists is credited to the conscience of the world media and world leaders.

Pakistan's culpability

The United Nations finally has a chance to justify its rent. India should invoke Articles 6 and 7 of the Charter to demand suspension of Pakistan’s voting rights until it dismantles terrorists camps in areas in its control, under international verification. India should internationalize grief. Shashi Tharoor once quipped “colonisation ended when its moral cost exceeded its economic benefit”. Have the colonists regained morality in the twenty first century? Doubtful. Pakistan is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the Indian subcontinent these past decades. For a nation as small as Pakistan, the country occupies disproportionate media and mind space. A country can be in the news for creating chaos or prosperity, Pakistan believes in the former. Yet the world looks the other way.

From the “actions” by Kabayalis (Pakistani tribesmen) followed by an Army-backed occupation of large parts of the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir that had acceded to India in 1948, to the savage and inhuman massacre of innocents in Pahalgam on 22 May 2025, Pakistan has a long history of supporting cross border terrorist activities in India. At least 65,000 people have been killed in India alone. If one adds Afghanistan, the number might well cross 80,000.

Former Joint Director War History Division, Ministry of Defence, Col Anil Athale put it very aptly in an article, “Pakistan is in the doghouse as virtually every single terrorist act anywhere in the world has a Pakistani footprint. Is there any other country in the world that has made export of terror an instrument of state policy like Pakistan has? Before asking the world to declare Pakistan a ‘terrorist state,’ is the scale of deaths not good enough for India to do so first? The effect of sanctions would not have the same impact as if the U.S. did so, but being the most affected country India must take the first step.

Pakistan stands on three legs; China (loans and weapons), Saudi Arabia (grants), and Turkey (weapons). Are China (with “business” interests in Pakistan) and Saudi Arabia waiting for the U.S. equivalent of September 11 before they, like the U.S., learn the hard way and stop supporting a rogue nation in a negative way? They must understand the Law of Karma, a key belief of the followers of Dharma.

So who is to blame? India alone. Is India incapable of taking tougher action? If India expects the toothless U.N. or the U.S. to declare Pakistan a terrorist state she is mistaken. India has now to fight its own battles for which it must reclaim its martial ancestry.

(The author is an Indian Army veteran and a contemporary affairs commentator. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at  kl.viswanathan@gmail.com )