Muqtedar Khan
There is a growing perception both in India and abroad that India won the recent military encounter with Pakistan but lost the battle of narratives.
This perception has been validated by India’s decision to send seven diplomatic delegations to 32 countries to share with the world not only India’s version of what happened in Pahalgam, during Operation Sindoor, and what led to the ceasefire, but also to persuade the world that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism. The need for this diplomatic mission is a recognition and admission that during the brief but intense war between the South Asian neighbors, India’s messaging did not land.
India’s Message and Messengers
India wanted the world to know that Pakistan was behind the horrendous terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam on April 22. India has long suffered cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and carried out by terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and it wanted the world to accept that the Pahalgam attacks were just a continuation of past cross-border terrorism. New Delhi offered no evidence, however; it wanted the world to take its word for it.
India also wanted to convey that its military response, Operation Sindoor, was calculated and restrained and designed only to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and not a war against the state of Pakistan or its people. This was new India, which would no longer suffer terrorism but would respond decisively and forcefully, but also responsibly.
The world did not buy this narrative. No leader and no country held Pakistan directly responsible for the Pahalgam attack. No one condemned Pakistan. There was no appreciation for India’s carefully calibrated military response; on the contrary, the world was preoccupied with how many of the Indian Air Force’s Rafale jets were shot down by Pakistan, and how Chinese jet fighters and air-to-air missiles were besting Western-made weapons deployed by India. U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media posts about his decisive role in bringing about the ceasefire, a claim that Pakistan confirms and Indian denies vehemently, then sucked away the oxygen from India’s narrative.
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