Real peace?

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s remarks last week, delivered on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur, laid bare a persistent truth: India’s political leadership, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appears unable (or unwilling) to come to terms with a strategic stalemate it evidently did not anticipate. India’s attempt to rewrite the narrative of the recent conflict with Pakistan, exemplified in Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s recent triumphalist framing of Operation Sindoor’, is also now bizarrely tragic. Doval dismissed reports by the foreign press and instead claimed that there is no photographic or satellite evidence showing any damage on the Indian side. This is despite acknowledgements even from several senior Indian security officials regarding Indian aircraft having been downed by Pakistan.The fact is that Pakistan came up with a calibrated and effective response, which included the downing of Indian aircraft and the preservation of escalation control. And no amount of one-sided narrative by India can change this fact. The Indian leadership is trying to sell a doctrine of dominance at home while discarding any and all principles of restraint, dialogue and mutual deterrence that have long kept the Subcontinent from sliding into catastrophe.

Doval’s false bravado masks the more complex truth – that India had to sue for a ceasefire, brokered by Washington. The assertion that India struck 13 Pakistani air bases with perfect accuracy is more myth-making than fact, especially when juxtaposed with independent reports confirming civilian casualties, including women and children, in India’s so-called ‘precision strikes’. In contrast, Pakistan’s response was measured, swift and effective. Far from being a passive recipient of aggression, Pakistan acted with professionalism and restraint, avoiding escalation while communicating red lines clearly. The current ceasefire is not an Indian gift to the region, but the outcome of a contested engagement, brokered under international pressure. In contrast, we have India with its decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), once again abandoning the rule-based order that once anchored regional stability. Pakistan’s stance was thankfully also legitimised by the International Court of Arbitration’s recent ruling.

Perhaps India should look at its deepening global isolation. From orchestrating assassination plots on foreign soil to suppressing dissent in Occupied Kashmir with brute force, its claim to global leadership is being undermined by its own actions. The international community is slowly awakening to a reality Pakistan has long highlighted: India’s use of state-sponsored terrorism and extrajudicial violence is not confined to its borders. In Kashmir, the Indian state continues to pursue a policy of repression and denial. How then does South Asia move forward? The first step would be the truth, not mythology, about what happened during recent conflicts.This would require India to abandon the illusion of unilateralism and return to the principles of diplomacy, dialogue and mutual respect. Pakistan has shown a willingness to talk. There can be no lasting regional peace without a meaningful change in India’s posture. If New Delhi chooses denial over dialogue and glorifies conflict, it is only adding to regional instability as well as harming its own credibility on a rapidly-evolving world stage.