Yes, I am disappointed.
Not because I seek war, not because I crave bloodshed, but because I believe in justice — a justice that must never be negotiated with those who wield terror as their weapon, doctrine, and identity. The recent ceasefire decision with Pakistan — while diplomatically nuanced and perhaps geopolitically influenced — feels like a half-measured pause in a battle that demands uncompromising resolve.
Make no mistake. This is not a war against a nation. This is a war against an ideology — the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism that breeds in the underbelly of a state that has mastered the art of plausible deniability. For decades, Pakistan has worn the mask of a failed democracy while nursing the fangs of the likes of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, and a rogues’ gallery of terror syndicates operating with military protection and ISI intelligence.
So, yes, I am disappointed that we have once again shaken hands with a nation that continues to stab us in the back.
Leverage Was Ours. We Should Have Unleashed Hell.
In the last decade, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, India has transformed from being a nation of polite protest to one of strategic muscle. From the surgical strikes post-Uri to the airstrikes after Pulwama, we declared to the world: India will not be passive. India will not tolerate. India will not forget.
That declaration, that doctrine, gave India leverage.
Pakistan is crumbling. Economically bankrupt, politically unstable, and diplomatically isolated, it is on life support — not just from the IMF but from China, the very dragon that feeds off weaker nations. We had the upper hand. Their economy couldn’t survive another diplomatic or military blow. Their army, embattled by internal extremism and ethnic uprisings in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is overstretched and under siege. Their global image is one of a pariah state, no longer even pretending to be civilised.
This was our moment to deliver a deafening blow — not to their civilians, not to their sovereignty — but to the terror infrastructure that has claimed thousands of Indian lives over decades.
Instead, we have a ceasefire.
Do ceasefires work with terror states? History screams a definitive no. Every ceasefire with Pakistan has been a tactical pause for them to regroup, rearm, and retaliate. The Kargil War emerged from the betrayal of a peace handshake. Ceasefire violations in Kashmir are counted in the thousands. Terrorist training camps don’t shut down during ceasefires — they operate with the knowledge that our guard is down.
I Still Trust Modi and Shah — Because This Is a Long War
Yet, despite my disappointment, I do not doubt the intentions of Prime Minister Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah. I trust them because they have earned that trust with their actions, not their words. I trust them because I believe they are architects of a new India — bold, proud, assertive.
Diplomacy sometimes demands strategic patience. In war — especially in modern-day hybrid warfare — every move on the chessboard is not about a final strike. It is about the long game. And India, under Modi-Shah, plays the long game better than most.
We must also acknowledge the reality: there is more to this ceasefire than what meets the eye. Geopolitical pressures, particularly from the Americans keen to stabilise Afghanistan 2.0 and keep China-Pakistan in check, may have played a role. Regional calm helps economic optics. Global diplomacy runs on trade routes and supply chains.
But none of this should blind us to the fundamental truth: you cannot negotiate with terror.
Even if this is a temporary pause, it must be used by our establishment not to appease, but to prepare. Because the next strike must be decisive. The next retaliation must be final. India cannot afford another 26/11. We cannot allow another Pulwama. And we must never allow another Pahalgam terror attack.
Eliminate the Threat, Erase the Ideology
The clear and present danger from Pakistan is not just about infiltrators at the LoC or sleeper cells in our metros. It’s about a radical ideology that sees India not as a neighbour, but as a civilisational enemy. It’s an ideology that teaches young boys that paradise lies on the other side of martyrdom — achieved by killing innocent people in Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu, or Srinagar.
This ideology must be eradicated, not contained.
It’s not enough to bomb terror camps. We must destroy the ecosystem. Every fundraiser, every hawala route, every mullah preaching hate in madrassas funded by Wahhabi oil money must be held accountable. Every sympathiser in Lutyens’ Delhi, every media apologist parroting “root cause” theories, every politician doing soft appeasement for vote banks must be exposed.
Pakistan, for all its nuclear bravado, has only one real weapon: terrorism. And unless we strip them of this weapon permanently, the threat remains — lurking, waiting, bleeding us through a thousand cuts.
India needs a doctrine of preemptive justice. Not retributive action, but preemptive elimination. And that means using every arm of the state — military, diplomatic, intelligence, and cyber — to dismantle the Frankenstein they’ve created.
To Be Civilised Is Not To Be Naïve
We are a civilised democracy. But that does not mean we are naive. We want peace, but not at the cost of our dignity. We seek dialogue, but not at the cost of our dead.
The tears of the widows of our jawans, the cries of children orphaned in terror attacks, the blood-soaked soil of Pulwama, Uri, Pathankot, and Mumbai — these are not to be washed away by ceasefire documents. They are etched in our national conscience. And they must remind us that the war on terror is far from over.
So yes, I am disappointed in the ceasefire.
Yes, I believe we had leverage, and we should have used it.
But yes, I still trust Modi and Shah to stay the course. To finish what they started. To build an India that no longer reacts to terror — but ensures that terror fears to provoke.
Because only when the roots of Islamic terrorism in Pakistan are scorched — not trimmed, not appeased — will there be lasting peace.
And only then will we honour every innocent life lost at the hands of jihadi terror.
India must never blink. Not now. Not ever.
