(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated May 26, 2025)

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepared to address the nation on May 12, two days after the dramatic cessation of hostilities in India’s sixth war with Pakistan, he knew it would be a defining moment of his third term. Twenty-six years earlier, in the summer of 1999, the Indian armed forces had, under the watch of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first prime minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), successfully repelled Pakistan’s brazen bid to capture the Kargil heights in what was the fifth war between the two countries. If circumstances had forced Vajpayee to go to war, then Modi, too, had no option but to visit severe punishment upon its neighbour for fostering a terror infrastructure that was responsible for the brutal gunning down of 26 innocent civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22.

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Just two years into his first term (2014-2019), Modi had pivoted away from his predecessor Manmohan Singh’s policy of strategic restraint against Pakistan’s transgressions towards punitive deterrence. It meant that Pakistan would henceforth have to pay a blood-for-blood price for any misadventure it dared to undertake. India’s fresh resolve was evident soon enough when, in response to a terror strike at an army camp in Uri in September 2016, Modi ordered surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC). Three years later, in February 2019, the PM cleared air force jets to strike a terror camp in Balakot right inside Pakistani territory after a car suicide bombing in Pulwama killed 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Six months later, shortly after being elected prime minister for the second time, Modi took the watershed step of abrogating Article 370, which bestowed special status on Jammu and Kashmir. That put a formal closure on Pakistan’s dubious claims over the Valley, though it didn’t stop Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir from describing it as his country’s “jugular vein” in a recent speech.

Following the Pahalgam attack, Modi has drawn thick new red lines in dealing with Pakistan-backed terror attacks. These entail a quantum jump in punitive measures, based on three simple principles, as external affairs minister S. Jaishankar communicated to the major world powers, including the US and China, before India struck. Jaishankar reportedly told them that firstly, India’s retribution against terror would increase exponentially; secondly, both terrorists and their sponsors (read Pakistan) would be held accountable and, thirdly, India would ensure they were brought to justice. Multiple vectors—political, military, economic and psychological—would be employed to achieve these objectiv