Last year on this day and in this month, India was prepping up for a kinetic action against Pakistan even as a group of armed terrorists attacked innocent civilians at the Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam, located in the southeast of the Kashmir Valley, leaving 26 dead. The terrorists carried out indiscriminate firing at people who were present there revelling on the open grasslands. While India took a number of diplomatic steps that nearly resulted in severing ties with Pakistan, New Delhi also launched a kinetic response under ‘Operation Sindoor’ that objective of which was to dismantle the terror modules operating across the Line of Control (LoC) as well as beyond the International Border (IB) by carrying out precision air strikes.
In terms of diplomatic and economic steps, India held the 1960 Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, asserting that “blood and water cannot flow together” until support for cross-border terrorism ceases. The integrated check-post at Attari-Wagah was closed immediately, and all bilateral trade with Pakistan was suspended. In an effort to put maximum pressure on Pakistan, New Delhi also declared Pakistan’s military, naval, and air advisors, who were posted at their diplomatic mission in India, as persona non grata, even as the total staff strength of the High Commission was reduced from 55 to 30. In addition to this, India also revoked the visas of Pakistani nationals and suspended the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme for them.
However, the primary response to Pahalgam came on May 7 when India went in for a major military retaliation codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’ under which precision airstrikes were carried out by the Indian Air Force using Rafale jets equipped with SCALP missiles and HAMMER bombs in order to destroy nine major terror launchpads and infrastructure across the border in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Over 100 terrorists were reportedly killed in these strikes, including high-value commanders such as Yusuf Azhar and Abdul Malik Rauf.
Prime Minister Modi granted the armed forces full operational freedom to decide the timing and targets of the response. A subsequent ground operation, Operation Mahadev, was conducted by the Army, CRPF, and J&K Police to track and kill the specific perpetrators involved in the Pahalgam massacre. By July 2025, all three primary attackers were apparently neutralised.
As the last echoes of gunfire faded into silence in the days that followed, India found itself grappling with a complex web of diplomatic relationships. The aftermath was marked by a period of introspection that forced New Delhi to reassess its alliances, particularly with key strategic partners like the United States. This period of reflection revealed the intricacies of international relations, spotlighting the deep-rooted connection between Pakistan and China, a partnership that seemed to evolve even as India felt increasingly isolated on the global stage.
The Pahalgam incident served as a pivotal moment, leading to a tightly coordinated military response known as ‘Operation Sindoor.’ This operation brought forth a series of critical lessons that India had to confront, which can be categorised broadly into three significant categories. Each of these lessons highlighted not only the immediate tactical challenges but also the overarching geopolitical realities that will perhaps shape India’s strategic landscape in the face of evolving international dynamics in the times to come.
Strategic Autonomy Obfuscates Truth
India, in the past decade, has made “strategic autonomy” the main pillar of its foreign policy. Several international relations pundits have hailed it as an upgraded version of India’s erstwhile ‘non-alignment’ stance, thereby focusing more on de-hyphenated diplomacy and settling for more issue-based coalitions. India today strictly follows the rule that the countries with which it maintains friendly ties, even if it is the United States, will not hyphenate India with Pakistan, and it has been largely successful in that endeavour. In the last 10 years, India has also aligned more with countries that it calls “like-minded”, even if that meant diluting some of its older principles. A prominent case in point of this is India’s unprecedented closeness with Israel, even if that is slowly translating into New Delhi only paying lip service to the two-state solution for Palestine.
In the light of Operation Sindoor, India, however, realised that such a stance has not translated into practical partnerships but only transactional. Not only did the United States seem to get closer to Pakistan, especially to its Army Chief Asim Munir, who got elevated to the rank of Field Marshal, but New Delhi’s rambunctious efforts to have some of its key allies explicitly name Pakistan as the sponsor of terrorism went in vain.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, India dispatched seven all-party parliamentary delegations to conduct an extensive global diplomatic outreach. These delegations were tasked with conveying a unified national message of “zero tolerance against terrorism” and exposing cross-border support for terror infrastructure. There were a total of 59 participants, including sitting MPs, former ministers, and veteran diplomats. In order to give it a bipartisan look, the government chose 39 members from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and 20 from non-NDA parties to project a bipartisan national consensus. The teams travelled to 33 countries and the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels, covering North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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Despite unprecedented efforts by India following a horrific terrorist attack, the country was unable to persuade its international allies to condemn the Pahalgam attacks in the way it desired, specifically, by openly calling out Pakistan and its role as a state sponsor of terrorism.
In fact, in less than one year, as the world continues to face severe uncertainties where nations are on the brink of conflict, Pakistan has emerged as a beacon of hope amid the turmoil brought on by the escalating war in Iran. The rapid onset of this crisis has cast shadows across the world, but against this backdrop, Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to mediate peace between Tehran and Washington have been lauded by the international community. Pakistan took on the responsibility to mediate despite its official stance of not recognising the state of Israel. With this complex geopolitical landscape in play, the international community is increasingly looking towards Field Marshal Munir as someone who can effectively play the role of a peace broker.
This probably can serve as one of the first and foremost lessons for India that when the world is facing a real crisis, it will be prudent not just to preach “dialogue and diplomacy” as the strategy to achieve peace but to make an effort towards it by bringing the warring parties under one roof. As the BRICS chair, India was in a better position than Pakistan to bring all the parties together on the negotiating table, if not as a mediator but as a country that seeks a leadership role for itself.
Pakistan Emerged As A Stronger Adversary
Yet another lesson India has learnt in the past year is that it cannot afford to look the other way when it comes to strengthening its military posture, as Islamabad remains a far bigger threat to India’s internal security than any other country, including China. New Delhi has understood that while China will always remain its biggest adversary, India needs Beijing for the growth of its economy; therefore, it cannot afford to stop talking to China. On the other hand, New Delhi is well aware of the fact that Pakistan will continue to promote terrorism even as India is still grappling with efforts to bring normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.
In January this year, while addressing an annual press meet, the Chief of Army Staff Gen. Upendra Dwivedi stated that Pakistan continues to run terror outfits along the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC). As many as eight terror camps are still active in Pakistan, out of which two are near the IB and six across the LoC. In fact, a few months prior to this statement made by the COAS, New Delhi witnessed a devastating car bomb blast in the Red Fort area, which resulted in the tragic loss of 15 lives. The attack was linked to a “white-collar” terror network involving several doctors and professionals from Faridabad and Kashmir. Links were traced to Pakistan-based groups Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH).
Military operations are being carried out regularly in the Jammu region, where terrorists, mostly from across the border, are being neutralised. Codenamed for its high-altitude focus, Operation Mahadev was a specific follow-up mission launched to neutralise the perpetrators of the April 2025 Pahalgam attack. A new doctrine of “preventive dominance” was implemented in high-tourism zones, featuring intensified surveillance along known tourist circuits in south Kashmir. Therefore, clearly, Pakistan remains a far bigger challenge for India than China.
China-Pakistan Are Indeed Friends, India Has None
The third and final lesson for India in the past year has been to realise the depth of partnership between Beijing and Islamabad and how it has transcended all boundaries. During the four-day conflict in May 2025 following Operation Sindoor, China provided Pakistan with extensive military, intelligence, and diplomatic support. On 4 July 2025, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Rahul R. Singh characterised the involvement as “unprecedented battlefield collusion” effectively forcing India to face a two-front challenge. He also admitted to the fact that China provided the Pakistani military with real-time “live inputs” regarding Indian military deployments and attack trajectories.
Beijing reportedly moved its satellite network to monitor Indian assets, providing Pakistani forces with a “full spectrum battlefield picture”. Pakistan visibly deployed Chinese-origin hardware, including J-10C fighter jets, PL-15 beyond-visual-range missiles, and HQ-9 air defence systems. China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system was directly integrated into Pakistani operations to provide missile guidance.
In February this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs released PRAHAAR, India’s first formal anti-terror policy. This policy explicitly addresses threats across land, water, and air, prioritising the protection of critical economic sectors like power, space, and atomic energy. Perhaps, it is crucial for India at this moment to finally unveil the National Security Doctrine, a draft that has been gathering dust for a decade. As global aggression escalates and conflicts become commonplace, New Delhi must confront its adversaries head-on while asserting its role as a responsible nation. The time for decisive action is now. India cannot afford to delay any longer.
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Nayanima Basu is a senior independent journalist.
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