What Would Victory Look Like?

A toughened bureaucrat like India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had to lock his X account after the dastardly trolls got after him and his family for announcing the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

- Satish Padmanabhan is the Managing Editor, Outlook magazine

Television anchors in army fatigues and camouflage helmets with leaves sticking out, a la Private Ryan, reporting from luxury resorts in balmy Srinager, framed in extreme close-ups so that it wouldn’t give away a swimming pool or a bar in the background, were dumbstruck by the announcement. Ladies and gents in Resident Welfare Association groups, who had begun stocking up on groceries, medicines and catfood for a prolonged war, for once, were left speechless.

But what do people straining at the leash for war with Pakistan really want? What do they envisage an Indian victory over Pakistan to be like? That India should bombard Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad to the ground and annexe Pakistan?