After Operation Sindoor, tales of West's hypocrisy

India may have to fight this battle alone; it can do that by accelerating growth, strengthening the economy and staying united

- Barkha Dutt

Even as a war reporter who cut my teeth in journalism with frontline coverage of the Kargil conflict in 1999, the scenes I witnessed on the ground during Operation Sindoor were unprecedented, surreal, and harbingers of what modern warfare will look like. Traveling by road through Punjab and Jammu—the airports were shut—one had to adjust to driving blind through precautionary blackouts. If I looked up, I would often see balls of orange fire light up the thick, black sky. Often this would be accompanied by the sound of explosions or the rat-a-tat of distant firing. When it was further away, you could only see the silent sliver of a red streak across the skyline. Of course, it soon became evident that this was India's fabulous integrated air defense system bringing down Pakistani drones, and in some cases, missiles, before they could hit any target, civilian or military in India.