Weeks after the India-Pakistan ceasefire was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Bikaner, Rajasthan, “It’s not blood but hot ‘sindoor’ (vermilion) that courses through my veins” — an obvious reference to Operation Sindoor, the military strike by the Indian defense forces on Pakistan.
Sindoor is the vermilion powder that married Hindu women apply in the parting of their hair. The operation was reportedly named by Modi himself. He said the strikes were aimed at avenging the honor of the women who were widowed by the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22.
Terrorists had gunned down 25 tourists (and one local pony rider), singling out the men and killing them in front of their wives and daughters. A fortnight later, on the night of May 6-7, Operation Sindoor was launched on terrorist camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Operation Sindoor has been hailed by the rank and file of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a befitting reply to wipe out Islamic terror and avenge Hindu pride. The fact that the defense establishment endorsed the sindoor imagery in a big way pumped up the right-wing and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supporters, who started dreaming of reclaiming all of Kashmir. The RSS is the ideological and parent organization of the BJP, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has on several occasions called for Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s reintegration into India.
Therefore, when the strikes came to an abrupt end with the declaration of the ceasefire on May 10, it angered BJP supporters who viewed it as a “surrender,” “unfinished business,” and “anticlimactic.” X handle @angryopinionatd wrote, “We failed to hammer the final nail in the coffin of Pakistan..!! Disappointed..!” Modi supporters also did not spare him. “We can’t risk our National Security in hands of Incompetent PM,” posted @HinduDharma1 on X.
What made matters worse was that U.S. President Donald Trump boasted that he mediated the ceasefire and publicly announced it first on his social media handle, much to the shock and dismay of warmongering right-wingers. “Godi media” (government-friendly lapdog media) television anchors like Arnab Goswami even vented their frustration on air, describing the post as “typical Trump overreach” and vehemently denouncing the U.S. President.
Trump reiterated at every opportunity, especially at press conferences, that it was he who had brokered the ceasefire by bribing both countries, India and Pakistan, with lucrative trade deals. The ignominy could not have been greater.
According to RSS insiders, even the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella grouping of Hindutva organizations, was flummoxed with the announcement of a ceasefire.
In his press briefing on the morning of May 10, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri indicated that India was in a position of dominance. Hours later on the same day, India had capitulated and agreed to a ceasefire. Sangh insiders were “worried” as India’s much-vaunted image of military invincibility was in tatters. Their dream of achieving “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India) had been rudely jolted by powers like China that had aided and bolstered Pakistan’s military might, as evidenced in the four-day conflict.
The Sangh’s discomfiture was grounded in the fact that recently, despite its unease, the RSS had been compelled to support the Modi government’s announcement that it will conduct a caste census.
Both the RSS and Modi had repeatedly scoffed at the opposition’s demand for enumerating caste in the population census, whereby the actual numbers of socially disadvantaged groups, i.e. the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), would be revealed. With critical state elections like the one in Bihar on the anvil, the Modi government realized the political necessity of announcing a caste census.
In addition, now the RSS is having to contend with and support a ceasefire instead of a much-anticipated victory over arch-enemy Pakistan.
Swarajya magazine, which is closely affiliated with the Sangh ideology, described the ceasefire as “not a resolution” but a “pause in hostilities” — a view that seemed to echo BJP General Secretary B.L. Santosh, who categorically stated that the ceasefire should be seen as a “pause, an understanding and not an agreement.”
Right-wing trolls unleashed their bile on Misri, who emerged as the visible face of the ceasefire, personally targeting him and his daughter. The cyber harassment forced Misri to lock his X account. In an earlier article, I had delved at length into the inherent misogyny of the patriarchal right-wing supporters, who will deify women only when they conform to the ideal of the Hindu naari (woman). Any aberration is viciously targeted.
It must also be understood that the right-wingers vote for the BJP, since it champions Hindutva, i.e., Hindu supremacy and jingoistic nationalism, especially when it is directed against Muslim majority Pakistan.
On May 9, even as India and Pakistan were engaging in hostilities, the BJP had prominently stated on its official X profile, “It is time for war, not appeals.” Therefore, not surprisingly, the BJP had to act swiftly to repackage the ceasefire as a thundering “victory” for India.
The ruling BJP dispensation made it a point to highlight that India was possibly the only country to strike deep within the territory of a nuclear-armed state. This was vital, since the principal opposition party, the Congress, was relentless in demanding an explanation for the sudden ceasefire and how many Indian aircraft had been shot down by Pakistan. It has been calling on the government to summon a Parliament session to discuss these questions.
It is evident that Modi’s strongman image, which helped the BJP reap electoral benefits from the 2019 Balakot air strikes in response to the Pulwama attack in 2019, had been dented. Therefore, to counteract Modi’s diminished stature, the BJP flooded all public platforms with Modi’s picture in an IAF fighter pilot uniform on road hoardings and railway tickets, hailing Modi as the dynamic leader who delivered a victory.
To assuage his supporters, Modi – in his first televised address after the ceasefire – emphasized that it was Pakistan that “suffered heavy losses” and called up the Indian side for a de-escalation. He assured countrymen that Pakistan-administered Kashmir was still very much on the bilateral agenda, should there be talks.
Incidentally, while hitting out at opposition parties and accusing them of playing politics over the military strikes, Modi himself lost no time in cashing in on Operation Sindoor for political benefit. To blunt opposition barbs on the strikes, Modi has strategically deputed several all-party delegations to convey India’s position on the attack and cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
More than a fortnight after the ceasefire, the government has made no headway in bringing the identified gunmen to justice. The sole focus continues to be on extracting maximum political mileage out of the military strikes.
To many, the jubilant Indian tricolor rallies (Tiranga Yatras) of the BJP and the grand celebrations might appear off-key, since the enemy was not vanquished.
However, Modi is not going to let a technical detail like a ceasefire come in the way of ratcheting up the patriotic pitch to reap electoral dividends in upcoming polls to the Bihar Assembly.