Last night at eight when our Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Nation, our countrymen and women heard him with pride. Earlier, he had told the country and the world that he would hunt down the terrorists and their ‘backers’, who massacred 26 tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, 2025. He said he would get them punished beyond their imagination.

Last night’s speech was his ‘Mission Accomplished’ report to the Nation. This time, from being a mere Prime Minister  (like his predecessors in Office), he has metamorphosed himself into a Lion King. And he roared. This time, Pakistan heard him, I guess, as it must be licking the deep wounds inflicted on it by our Tri-Forces.

The military attack, named “Operation Sindoor”, apparently dedicated to the Hindu women, who were widowed by the Pakistani terrorists, was launched on 7th May, 2025. It was a blitzkrieg of the kind Israel destroyed the entire Air Force of Egypt in the 6-day war of 1967. Modi has made the Pakistan Army walk on crutches and beg for ceasefire.

Now the question is not whether Modi has kept his promise and accomplished his “mission and objectives,” he had announced on Apr. 24 in his Bihar speech. Some say yes and, therefore, want India to call off further military conflict. They are left-liberals advocating “talks” with Pakistan. Oh, yes, could be because it is a Muslim country. Did you get me Steve?

There are also some who say what has been done since 7th May, 2025 is not enough, the mission is not accomplished. Therefore, India should not have agreed for the ceasefire. They are right-wingers, staunch nationalists.

The question is, what next? Answer to this question is in Modi’s speech to the Nation made last evening. The whole world must have listened to him. Yes, Pakistan, which had taken Modi’s Bihar speech with scant attention knowing India’s past reactions to terror, this time must have heard him with much attention, though on crutches.

Yesterday’s speech seems to have given some hope and great satisfaction to the people of India (fringe elements apart) that at last Modi has placed two non-negotiable conditions for going further from the present ‘ceasefire’ imbroglio. They are — Pakistan will be held responsible for future terrorist acts  and PoK must be handed over to India. Period.

In other words, terror must stop and PoK returned to India to call off ‘Operation Sindoor.’ The Lion of India has spoken.

But the question is: Will the Pakistan Army, which owns the country, agree for these                  conditions? Possibility is remote. So, India shall not sheath the sword of Sindoor it has unsheathed and must hold it naked battle-ready to fulfil the two conditions.

If Pakistan remains adamant, the world will see Pakistan’s “inexorable descent into fear and nihilism,” as the American Journalist and Author Aatish Taseer had said with a sense of premonition. God forbid. Humanity is greater than your religion. Brotherhood of mankind is what a religion                           should teach.

To sum up, let me reproduce my open letter to Modiji published in Star of Myore dated 3rd May, 2025:

A Letter to Prime Minister Modi

Create geography like Indira Gandhi did in 1971 war

Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modiji,

Greetings from a wounded secular citizen of India, an octogenarian.

The Pahalgam massacre must be revenged. The terrorists and their backers must be buried under the earth, to use your resolve made on the soil of Bihar. To do so, this is your finest hour.

Remember the words of Dom Moraes, the renowned journalist and author, who wrote about the war India fought with Pakistan in 1971 and created Bangladesh. In great admiration of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for the victory, Dom Moraes wrote in Indian Express, ‘Mrs. Indira Gandhi not only created history but also created geography.’

Modiji, I remind you of this profound statement at this hour of crisis for our country only because you too, like Indira Gandhi, should seize the opportunity and create not only history but also geography.

Bangladesh, the Islamic State of the size of a handkerchief compared to India, has the hubris to threaten us saying it would cut off the Siliguri  Corridor, also known as the chicken’s neck, and take over Assam. Occupy Bangladesh territories around the chicken’s neck and expand the Siliguri Corridor. Create an iron curtain in place of the chicken’s neck.

In the West, take back the “stolen” part of Kashmir (to borrow the word from our Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar), now known as PoK. With this, India’s bruised sovereignty and unity  and integrity of its territories will be reclaimed and restored as per the Preamble of our Constitution.

This done, if any militarily strategic pass or territory needs to be occupied, finish that job too.

This land of Sanatana Dharma has for centuries remained a land of lotus-eaters. Now time has come to spew fire and brimstone to reclaim our land and protect our people.

— K.B. Ganapathy, Founder-Editor,  Star of Mysore

e-mail: [email protected]