BEFORE BJP’s ascendency into power, India branded itself as a tolerant, secular and inclusive society whose democratic principles were largely anchored in sociopolitical diversity and religious freedom while externally, it championed being non-aligned and occupied an important place amongst the global south countries.
Nevertheless, since 2011 onwards, BJP regime has converted India into a far-right wing Hindu Rashtra, fostering an elitist and extractive authoritarian regime and nurturing an intolerant, radical and extremist society.
More dangerously, riding on a bubble of populism and false sense of security, PM Modi structured his internal and external policies on certain fragile and wrong assumptions. To count a few: (i) India enjoys unprecedented global geopolitical and geo-economics relevance; (ii) India is the net security provider and counter weight to China; (iii) India has attained formidable military strength and established impregnable air defence; (iv) India can find a space for waging war with Pakistan under nuclear overhang; (v) India can simultaneously ride eastern and western boats on the pretext of so-called strategic autonomy; (vi) India is the global manufacturers’ and investors’ destination; (vii) India is the rightful claimant of regional and global leadership; (viii) and finally, India has enough global clout to kill political dissent even by exporting terrorism to regional and global countries.
In order to actualize these misplaced assumptions, PM Modi orchestrated his power structure around: (i) fostering anti-Pakistan sentiments as the central theme of his election campaigns; (ii) using false flag operations to garner political mileage; (iii) pampering Main Stream Media (MSM) to jingoistic and extremist narratives by using fake and false news; (iv) following ultra-right wing Hindutva and marginalizing over 300 million non-Hindu population; (v) propagating Akhand Bharat as the State policy thus creating insecurity amongst the neighbors; (vi) believing in the highly inflated power potential of India and grossly undermining other’s real power potential; (vii) and, crushing the political dissent by exporting terrorism to regional and transregional countries.
Historically, BJP led governments on one hand, have radically polarized the sociopolitical fabric of the Indian polity while on the other hand, they have been the source of problems for the regional and global community. Internally, democratic and constitutional foundations were shaken while externally Indian leadership appeared to be confused and wondered between the eastern and the western blocs and caught in a double game. India attempted to simultaneously play ‘American strategic partner’ and also become part of the anti-USA BRICS and SCO. India announced its neighborhood first policy however, ended up having strained relations and disputes with all its neighbors. India portrayed itself strong enough to act as counter weight to China however, in reality, it repeatedly failed to counter even Pakistan. India has become the largest buyer of the military hardware while its over 770 million people still live under the UN defined poverty line.
Interestingly, BJP’s leadership appeared to have played to the gallery and in a way benefited its adversaries through irrational and aggressive approach. There is a considered thought amongst the strategic community of both Pakistan and India that India’s hegemonic and irrationally-aggressive designs were amongst the chief factors responsible in compelling Pakistan to establish Full Spectrum Deterrence through its nuclear and missile programs, and build formidable conventional capabilities. Ironically, India’s misplaced assumption of waging a limited war against nuclear Pakistan while remaining within the conventional domain also badly backfired. Pakistan, through its Quid Pro Quo Plus strategy, successfully reestablished deterrence and restored strategic stability of the region both in February 2019 and May 2025. According to the Indian military strategist Mr Pravin Sawhney, the Indian government had to rush to the global powers for meddling peace and brokering a ceasefire with Pakistan in 2002, 2019 and 2025.
Likewise, Indian attempts to use Pahalgam false flag operation to gain political mileage also failed. International community did not respond; Indian social media, civil society and strategic community questioned security and intelligence failures, and its main stream media discredited for spreading false and fake news. Similarly, on 05 August 2024, India also lost its over five decades of geopolitical and geo-economic investment in Bangladesh when Bengalis rose against the decades of tyrannical rule backed by the Indian intelligence agency RAW. India being caught red-handed exporting terrorism to the neighbors and NATO countries for suppressing political dissent was one of the most stunning happenings in this regard.
Indian attempts to unilaterally alter the UNO backed socio-political status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) by revoking articles 35A and 370 on 05 August 2019 also backfired. It not only further alienated the people of IIOJ&K and brought China in the equation as the major stake holder but also internationalized the issue. India-China Standoff in the Doklam region, deadly clashes of Galwan valley in June 2020, troops confrontation in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh in December 2022, are few of the examples in this regard. In May 2023, China not only boycotted the G-20 meeting hosted by India but also condemned India for holding the event in the disputed territory of IIOJ&K.
The four-day war between Pakistan and India from 6-10 May 2025 has placed far reaching effects on both the countries. In Pakistan’s case, it has validated Michel Foucault’s theory of power (French historian and philosopher), that ‘power means holding the capacity to influence or affect the actions of others’. India on the other hand, has suffered geopolitical and geo-strategic backsliding as many myths regarding its real power potential were busted. It is the time to introspection. Unbiased and dispassionate analysis calls for the people of India to recalibrate their political choices and also places due onus of responsibility on the global community to initiate stringent remedial measures to cure the ‘sickman’.
—The writer is a retired Air Officer from the PAF and currently serving at the DHA Suffa University (DSU), Karachi.
