The day after India’s Operation Sindoor, the boundaries of escalation began to blur. What started as a pre-dawn strike on nine terror launchpads across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir has begun to reshape India’s approach to cross-border deterrence. The strikes were meant to be precise, swift, and confined, but they have unlocked something wider—a strategic shift that seems both inevitable and irreversible.At home, the official line held firm. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in an all-party briefing, said India remains fully prepared to respond responsibly in the future as well. In a rare moment of unity, political parties stood behind the government. The opposition, usually vocal in its criticism of the ruling coalition on matters of national security, set politics aside. India had been targeted. India had responded. That was the shared baseline.
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