In the shadowy world of geopolitics, optics matter. For India, the pattern that emerged in the aftermath of the 2019 Pulwama–Balakot crisis has ominously repeated itself in 2025. Despite public posturing and nationalist rhetoric, behind closed doors, New Delhi once again found itself pulled back from the brink—not by its own strategic restraint, but by foreign pressure and global diplomatic choreography.
The 2019 Template: Bombast, Bombing, and Backpedaling
The Pulwama attack in February 2019, which killed over 40 Indian paramilitary personnel, was a watershed moment. India responded with airstrikes across the Line of Control (LoC) in Balakot, claiming to have targeted terrorist camps run by Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The objective in 2019 was the same as that of the current Operation Sindoor: to eliminate the terrorists responsible for the massacre and dismantle their support networks. Yet despite the bold rhetoric, not all of the perpetrators were neutralized. In fact, several k...
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