A muscular new doctrine, a paused military operation – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first address after Operation Sindoor marked a pivot in India’s terror response. On Tuesday morning, that pivot echoed across the front pages of India’s biggest English dailies.
The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Times of India and Hindustan Times on their front pages highlighted key portions from Modi’s speech – that Operation Sindoor had only been “paused”, not ended, and that any future terrorist attack would be met with retaliation on India’s own terms.
The Hindu frontpage headline was ‘India won't bend to Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail’, and mentioned that the PM said that Operation Sindoor was not over, and the “cessation of hostilities (was) only a pause”.
The Indian Express headline was ‘India won’t accept Pak nuclear blackmail... I dedicate our soldiers’ valour to every mother, sister, daughter. The coverage added, “Terror & talks, trade can't go together; water & blood can't flow together: PM.”
The Times Of India frontpage headline was ‘PM: Nuclear Blackmail Won't Work’ and the coverage added, ‘If Pak Wants To Survive, It Will Have To Destroy Its Terror Infrastructure’.
The Hindustan Times frontpage read ‘Won't tolerate nuclear blackmail, terror, talks can't go together: PM’ and added, “Modi declares India First address after Op Sindoor, has only paused action against Pak contingent on their behaviour, says not era of war, but not of terrorism either.”
‘India’s instinctive pacifism’
In its editorial titled ‘Defending Peace’, the Times of India hailed India’s decision to not become the aggressor. It mentioned how Modi’s Monday speech puts peace front and centre and speaks to the PM’s “political maturity and India’s instinctive pacifism”.
“It’s important, therefore, to re-emphasise that the way India conducted itself during Op Sindoor reiterates the first principles of pacifism – that we shall not be the aggressor…India made peace its civilisational value millennia ago, and in recent history it has been enshrined in our Constitution, which stresses international peace and security. War simply is not an instrument of state policy in India as it is in, say, Israel or Russia…So, while Pakistan tried to paint Op Sindoor as an unprovoked Indian aggression, India declared at the outset it was an answer to Pahalgam, and confined to terrorist bases,” the editorial read.
In its editorial titled ‘PM’s firm message’, The Tribune emphasised Modi's strong stance on national security and the government's commitment to safeguarding the country.
“His words — “Terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together, and water and blood cannot flow together” — were aimed not just at Pakistan but also at the international community. India will no longer play by the old rules where diplomacy coexisted with terrorism, or where international pressure blurred accountability. Operation Sindoor, the swift and calibrated response to the barbaric April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, marked a tectonic shift in the country’s security posture. The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force executed a coordinated precision strike across nine terror-linked targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and deep inside Pakistan’s military zones, including Karachi’s Malir cantonment and Lahore’s radar hubs. The downing of a Pakistani Mirage jet was demonstrative of resolve,” read The Tribune’s editorial.
The Telegraph, through its editorial titled ‘Red line’, examined India’s recent declaration that any future terrorist attack on its soil will be treated as an act of war against Pakistan.
“Coming in the wake of the ceasefire agreement, leaks of this Indian position are clearly meant to signal to Pakistan that unlike in the past, New Delhi will not bother about restraint and proportionality in its military strikes into the western neighbour’s territory. This message carries potency precisely because the Indian armed forces demonstrated last week their superior ability while attacking Pakistani cities and military facilities — the prime minister, too, referred to this point in his address to the nation last night. If formally adopted, this position could serve as a deterrence against adventurism on the part of the Pakistani military and the proxy terrorist groups that it actively controls,” the editorial read.
Though The Indian Express did not carry an editorial about the PM’s Monday speech, in an editorial on Sunday, it had said, “When the cessation of firing was announced by both India and Pakistan Saturday evening, there couldn’t have been a more ringing endorsement of Delhi’s message on terror coming from across the border: India will hit terrorists and terror infrastructure wherever they are; Pakistan’s alibis, indefensible all, have run out. The “new normal” of deterrence — which began with the surgical strikes after the Uri attack and was shored up with the Balakot strike after Pulwama 2019 — has now been re-etched clearly and firmly. Through Operation Sindoor, India has responded to, and countered, every act of escalation by Pakistan…India has broadened the tools at its disposal by holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, while laying down that every act of terrorism will now be considered “an act of war” and receive a proportionate response by the military.
If you’re reading this story, you’re not seeing a single advertisement. That’s because Newslaundry powers ad-free journalism that’s truly in public interest. Support our work and subscribe today.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
