PM Modi presses reset button on India-Pak, says 'talks and terror can't work together'

PM Modi called out Pakistan for its support to terror and in no unflinching terms re-defined the rules of engagement between the two countries

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on May 12, the first since Operation Sindoor, where India carried out strikes against Pakistan terror infrastructure, redefined the paradigm of the India-Pakistan relationship.

PM Modi called out Pakistan for its support to terror and in no unflinching terms re-defined the rules of engagement between the two countries.

Modi, calling out the terror apparatus of Pakistan, identified Bahawalpur and Muridke as "global universities" of terror. India, as PM Modi pointed out, has responded in a language that Pakistan understands.

PM Modi referred to New Delhi's strategy as the 'new normal'. He also reiterated that India will respond on its "own terms" and the response will be 'strong'.

In India's long fractious relationship with Pakistan, while New Delhi has called out the terror outfits of its neighbour, it hasn't hit back with the military aggression that India has displayed in the last few weeks with 'Operation Sindoor'.

PM Modi called out Pakistan's "nuclear blackmail" and explicitly stated that there will be no talks with Islamabad unless about terrorism and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir are addressed.

In defining the new normal , PM Modi said, "India will answer back... nuclear blackmail won't work. Terror and talks can't go together and blood and water will not flow together."

This is in contrast to the India of 2008, when after the dastardly attacks on 26th of November in Mumbai, India opted for strategic restraint instead of immediate military retaliation. According to former national security advisor Shivshankar Menon's book-'Choices: Inside the making of India's foreign policy', Menon advocated decisive action against Lashkar-e-Tayyaba facilities in Muridke, their camps in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir .

The then external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee had also publicly declared that all of India's options remain open. However, at the time, Menon writes that a considered judgement was made that there was more to be gained from not attacking Pakistan than from attacking it. Besides strategic considerations , economic considerations were also taken into account. The concern at the time was that a military retaliation could escalate and that could 'severely damage India's economic progress'.

Operation Sindoor is in sharp contrast to how India has dealt with Pakistan in the past. The big messages for Pakistan from Modi's India is that New Delhi will hit out hard when provoked and the message has gone to all of Pakistan in no uncertain terms (including the state and non-state actors) -PM Modi did not make a distinction while addressing the country.

Even as PM Modi resets the paradigm for India-Pakistan relations, the address did not talk about US President Donald Trump's role in the ceasefire announced between India and Pakistan. President Trump has made a statement that the US threatened India and Pakistan with no trade unless the countries announced a ceasefire.