New normals

In his long-awaited speech, the Indian Prime Minister claimed to have established a new normal — on the lines of a forever war — through the operation named Sindoor. Originally the name was intended to effeminise the enemy, the operation was hastily rebranded once its underlying misogyny was exposed.

I disagree only on the details. The war that started in 1947 never ended. The new normal India has established can only be described as suicidal stupidity. More on that later.

I wanted to start where we left off last week — with a plea to my readers to wish for sanity to return to India, leading to the resumption of the peace process. I have a feeling you not only wished for it, but your wishes came true. You must know you were in great company: Pope Leo XIV not only blessed the emerging ceasefire but also prayed for the miracle of peace. I could not be more grateful. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.

Last Friday, after sending in my column, I went to the office for my show and returned home at midnight. Despite my exhaustion, a sense of foreboding gripped my heart. You'll remember the Indian media's tamasha the night before. Having lived a fulfilling life, I seldom worry about myself.

But I am the father of two charming young ladies whose lives are only just beginning. They had to sit their O-Level and A-Level exams amid this madness. This is the third time India has made me worry about their safety — first in 2016 after Uri, then in 2019 after Pulwama, and now. In a nuclear tinderbox like South Asia, such brinkmanship is unforgivable. I will never forgive India for that.

But when an Indian missile struck Nur Khan Airbase, it wasn't the nuclear threat that came to mind - it was the safety of the visiting Saudi deputy foreign minister, who had arrived just a day earlier. Dignitaries, both foreign and local, frequently use this airfield. Mercifully, he had left the country by then.

But can you blame me for worrying? He is Muslim — and Indian media, through its conduct, had already laid bare the Islamophobic madness gripping New Delhi. One Muslim country's foreign minister was called "son of a pig" on a tightly controlled live broadcast while still present in the Indian capital. Even if the Saudi minister had departed, who knew who else was visiting?

So, when the DG ISPR came on air to announce Pakistan's retaliation, everyone — including yours truly — felt it was overdue. Even so, the possibility of escalation into a full-blown nuclear exchange couldn't be ruled out. I was impressed by our side's mature and restrained response. But clearly, the other side had severed all ties with reality.

In fact, a Western diplomat told me that India was so rattled by Pakistan's response that rescinding the No First Use policy came under discussion in at least one high-level meeting. I'm familiar with this mentality. That's why — while punters were still debating whether India would strike after Pahalgam — I had already uploaded short videos outlining the catastrophic fallout of a nuclear exchange on my YouTube and TikTok channels. You can verify the timestamps on my handles: @fptalks.

President Trump's tweet ended those fears. While Indians continued to misbehave even after he saved their skin, I have no qualms in admitting that — by averting a nuclear catastrophe — he earned a place on my very short list of personal heroes.

Now, to new normals. Two decades of the war on terror have desensitised average Pakistanis to explosions and violent death. A conflict with India, however, remained untested and retained some psychological sting. But once enemy drones and missiles flew over their heads, that fear evaporated. In the process, India lost a crucial psychological edge. That's our new normal.

Now, regarding India's claim that a forever war is the new normal: in wars, you win some and you lose some. Even a baboon with two working brain cells can see that India has more to lose than Pakistan. I never underestimate the courage or patriotism of any soldier - ours or theirs. But as for India's ruling class - let's just say it is full of paper tigers. Consider this: after the Abhinandan episode, they didn't dare send their pilots back into Pakistani airspace.

Once their jets were shot down, they grounded the entire fleet. They have no appetite for losses. Remember, Pakistan's last cricket tour of India was in 2012–13. Pakistan won the ODI series. Since then, India has refused bilateral series, lobbied for the Big Three, and tried to cripple Pakistan cricket. Their "new normal" is a spin. Bullies are cowards.

And now, the international new normal. For a detailed analysis of the global fallout, I invite you to watch my long-form video, Postmortem of India's War Strategy, available on the same handles and searchable through Google. But here is the short version.

Call it a war/terror strategy if you like — but it was essentially a business model rooted in extortion. During the Global War on Terror, whenever something went wrong in India, New Delhi blamed Pakistan and threatened strikes. The West, worried about their operations in Afghanistan, would rush to de-escalate. India would then demand massive concessions and pressure the world to isolate Pakistan. And the world obliged. This time, India's gambit failed — and the business model collapsed. Its methods lay exposed.

So did another argument: the case for China-US decoupling. India had weaponised Western fears of both China and terrorism (for India: exclusively Muslims). But it had already lost half the battle when its assassination campaigns were exposed in multiple Five Eyes countries. It took a patient Pakistani underdog to call the bully's bluff and unravel the spin around the new cold war.

For Western intelligence agencies, this war was a counterintelligence goldmine. As the Indian government grew desperate, agencies observed countless anonymous white nationalist accounts suddenly drop their pretences and transform into full-blown Hindutva warriors. All bad actors, we are told, have now been identified. Their insulation and neutralisation will follow. With that, the international Hindutva spin industry may be dismantled. Another new normal.

Something shifted this time. A spell was broken. As India's carefully manufactured image unraveled in real time, the world began to ask uncomfortable questions. How long can a democracy survive on spectacle and suppression? Remember this war was primarily started for the sake of optics.

How long can a state claim victimhood while behaving like a regional bully? And for how much longer will the world look away, rewarding recklessness in the name of strategic balance? When a nation exports both violence and disinformation, the consequences are not local — they ripple outward, destabilising the very order the global community claims to uphold.

Word to the wise: India should desist from leaning into its friends and family network abroad. At this stage more spin will only harm them.