POST SINDOOR, CALLS GROW FOR MESSAGING MECHANISM TO WIN NARRATIVE WAR AGAINST PAKISTAN

MUST BE UNIFIED

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

A section within India's security establishment is pressing for urgent reforms in strategic communication after Operation Sindoor exposed weaknesses that allowed Pakistan to gain the upper hand in the contest of narratives.

While the military operation was executed with precision and achieved its strategic objectives, the information war that followed told a very different story. Pakistan's account dominated international coverage, while India was left playing catch-up.

This gap has been particularly troubling because India already maintains at least two dedicated verticals inside the defence system whose sole mandate is strategic communication. In practice, these structures did not deliver when tested, officials told The Sunday Guardian. Similarly, the National Security Council, which could have coordinated messaging across services and ministries, was not involved in the exercise. Whatever impact was achieved came through the top political leadership using its own informal setup. Without a defined authority, there was no accountability. Since no single official or institution was responsible, no one bore the burden of results. Officials say this vacuum was one reason fake and imaginary news spread unchecked, causing irreparable damage to the credibility of Indian electronic media at the global level.