‘Goli Ka Jawab Gola’: How PM Modi Spoke Through His Actions Against Pakistan

PM Modi’s latest philosophy is that neither the border, nor the nuclear threat, will protect terrorists.

“Wahan se goli chalegi, yahan se gola chalega" — Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke through his actions in the last one week as part ofOperation Sindoor.Modi took two huge calls—one striking at the head of the snake, the terror headquarters across the border on May 7. That was the response to the April 22 Pahalgam strike, with Modi instructing terror nerve centres in Bahawalpur and Muridke ‘ko mitti mein mila do’. The second one, on May 10, was bigger—attacking Pakistan’s multiple air bases, including in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. This was after Pakistan dared to launch ballistic missiles against two major military bases in India.

Modi was unmoved even when US Vice-President JD Vance called him, asking if hostilities can be ceased. The prime minister told Vance that he won’t offer any off-ramp to Pakistan, and promised a devastating response to Pakistan if it continues to act against India. S Jaishanakar’s response to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was similar after Rubio said Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir had told him he was ready to stop military action. Rubio was told to “let Pakistan DGMO say so directly to India".

Modi’s firm attitude forced Pakistan into submission. In a big surprise to India, the Pakistan DGMO offered to talk to India later on May 10. The two DGMOs spoke at 3.35pm that day to put a ‘cessation to hostilities’ into motion. But this also remains under constant ‘review and equal response’ mechanism as Pakistan continues to send drones across the border on both Saturday and Sunday night.

These events underline Modi’s latest philosophy—neither the border, nor the nuclear threat, will protect terrorists. If Pakistan foments terrorism against India, it will now be an ‘act of war’. It showed when Modi instructed the armed forces before the May 7 strike — that don’t target the terror foot-soldiers anymore or their small camps, but go after their headquarters in Muridke and Bahawalpur. The armed forces reserved their deadliest weapon for Bahawalpur, 100 km from the border, where the entire terror family of Maulana Masood Azhar was wiped out. Jaish-e-Mohammed was created by the ISI and the Bahawalpur strike sent a big message.

Why Modi approved May 10 Strike

For India, and Modi, the revenge for Pahalgam was complete after Operation Sindoor on May 7 when over 100 terrorists were killed in the Indian strike. But the government also knew that Pakistan won’t stay silent. On the night of May 8, Pakistan chose to send swarms of drones to target 36 civilian areas and military targets from Leh to Sir Creek all along the Western border. India brought down all these drones and, in response, used drones to destroy the Lahore air defence system and military targets. But India knew Pakistan would strike big after a May 9 IMF bailout.

Almost on cue, within hours of the IMF bailout on night of May 9, Pakistan did something which made Modi take his biggest call. It fired ballistic missiles on Indian military bases in Punjab and Haryana, and sent its fighter planes to target Indian military bases in Adampur, Udhampur, Jammu and Srinagar. One report said a long-range Fatah missile was en-route to Delhi when it was brought down in Sirsa.

Modi took a big decision then. It was time to teach Pakistan a lesson it won’t forget. India decided to fire Brahmos Missile for the first time in combat as well as launch SCALP and HAMMER missiles from Rafale jets at nearly 10 Pakistani air bases. This was the turning point. Unlike the Pakistani attack which failed, the Indian attack devastated big air bases of Pakistan—especially the Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi and the air base in Islamabad.

The message from Modi was very clear—India will hit Pakistan deep inside their heart. As Rajnath Singh said on Sunday, “the Indian strike reverberated in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistani Army". This is what made Pakistan succumb, as was evident in the pictures of the damage to the air bases made public by India on Sunday. India under Modi totally changed the rules of the game.

All this while, neither did Modi ever to Pakistan, nor did NSA Ajit Doval. Modi also chose to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance despite the ceasefire understanding. India has also discounted any possibility of US mediation in the Kashmir issue. Modi, who took the historic step of abrogating Article 370 in J&K for its full integration with India, is of the firm view that the only unresolved matter with Pakistan is the return of PoK. There is nothing else to talk about, Modi feels.