India's four day 'war' with Pakistan: mission accomplished? Sifting claims from reality | Ajai Sahni

In an exclusive interview with Sreenivasan Jain, founding member and executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management Ajai Sahni discusses Operation Sindoor and its impact, India's military strategy and geopolitical stance following the military clash with Pakistan, and the discrepancies in the government’s narrative.

Sahni questioned if Operation Sindoor effectively deterred Pakistan or changed its stance on terrorism. “Unless you can demonstrate to me that some kind of deterrence has been in fact imposed upon Pakistan and on the terrorists. I see no evidence of that in the immediate situation. We have to look to the future. We can already see that we are getting threats from terrorist groups including Jaish-e-Muhammad whose headquarters at Bahawalpur were destroyed,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that Pakistan caved in under pressure from India, and its DGMO called and said that they will not support terrorism anymore. Sahni said the DGMO has no authority to make any such assurances. “That's the genius of the current system…You can say anything and there is no way to validate or invalidate it. Today we have a situation where the Prime Minister, or at least the government, has rejected any idea that we went or discussed the whole conflict with Trump. Trump makes a clear claim that he mediated the ceasefire. We say there was no such mediation…You have two world leaders making completely irreconcilable claims…Go figure,” he said.

Sahni said that though the government has talked about muscularity, historically, India has sought nothing more than defensive parity with Pakistan. “That has not changed under this government. So if you tell me that we can simply walk over to Pakistan and plant our flags in Islamabad next weekend, I think you are living in a world of absolute delusion,” he added.

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00:00 Operation Sindoor: Mission Accomplished?
05:54 On PMs claim: Pak vowed to end terror
08:17 India vs Pak: An assessment of the 4 day war
16:12 Putting Pahalgam into perspective
20:03 Efficacy of Op Sindoor and the myth of zero terrorism
26:46 The appropriate response to Pak terror
32:59 India's future in the new world order

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