OPED By Shay Gal
Last week, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, inaugurating a new BrahMos line, cast Op Sindoor as a preview of scalable Indian strike power. JeM-linked arrests show sustained counter-terror pressure; Pakistan’s generals offered rhetoric, not accountability. May’s strikes now read as a visible doctrine, not a one-off.
By linking BrahMos expansion to Sindoor’s legacy, Rajnath Singh signaled that India’s deterrence is not episodic – it is industrial. Defence production has become a language of diplomacy, where each missile assembled in Nashik or Hyderabad carries both strategic and symbolic weight.
On May 7, 2025, India launched Operation Sindoor after the Pahalgam massacre (26 dead), targeting LeT/JeM infrastructure – not the Pakistani military or civilians.
LeT (’90s) and JeM (2000) are Kashmir-focused, globally networked. Qatar-based conduits, named by the U.S. Treasury and UN, feed LeT; Turkish Islamist NGO/transit networks link JeM to Pakistan’s proxies. Both networks have expanded into Europe’s diaspora, from radical preachers in Bradford to online recruitment hubs in Doha and Istanbul – an echo of the same extremist continuum the West once fought in Syria and the Sahel.
Sindoor hit not only local camps but a global jihad supply-chain.
Sindoor re-calibrated global deterrence: India neutralized logistics, command, and finance nodes the West failed to dismantle for decades. Washington’s early “neutrality” – diplomatic, not moral – Periods of declared neutrality often blurred the line between observation and passive consent.
While the G7 emphasized “stability”, Western actors have at times struggled to align with India’s emphasis on moral clarity. For decades, the U.S. and allies bankrolled Pakistan’s military (incl. CSF), entrenching the shield for these proxies. Sindoor dismantled parts the West helped build.
For decades, the U.S. poured over $30 billion into Pakistan’s military during the ‘War on Terror,’ creating capacities that later shielded these same proxies – the very networks Sindoor dismantled
Ethics For Others, Exemptions For Allies
While Washington lectured India on “energy ethics”, it quietly bought refined Russian fuels – then rushed to seal the loopholes. Nowhere is this hypocrisy clearer than in Turkey and Qatar – partners that bankroll the same networks the West condemns.
Turkey, still under U.S. sanctions for its S-400 deal, blocks EU and NATO projects vital to Greece and Cyprus while seeking entry to the €150 billion SAFE fund and chasing Eurofighter and even F-35 sales.
It occupies northern Cyprus – the only EU land under foreign rule – and its 2019 pact with Libya drew illegal maritime borders violating Greek and Cypriot rights. In 2024 it logged 3,200 air and naval violations of EU airspace – versus fewer than 40 Russian ones.
Qatar remains a financial artery for LeT and JeM. Yet, in October 2025, Washington deepened its defence ties with Doha: the Pentagon signed a Letter of Agreement to base a Qatari F-15QA detachment at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, and the White House issued an executive order pledging U.S. defence of Qatar if attacked – an upgrade beyond its 2022 MNNA status.
These steps formalize a security partnership with a state that simultaneously hosts and bankrolls actors the West claims to oppose.
Turkey hosts laundering and logistics networks tied to the Houthis, with U.S. Treasury sanctions naming Turkish intermediaries funnelling oil and smuggling revenues to Yemen’s rebels.
By enabling Houthi threats in the Red Sea and Suez Canal, backing Hamas, and enforcing its Libya corridor, Ankara inflates the cost of sea trade along IMEC – making its Middle Corridor the only viable overland route when maritime lanes falter.
A state that occupies EU soil, redraws borders with Libya, shelters terror financiers, and still receives Western arms cannot credibly claim moral leadership. The contradiction is not incidental – it is structural.
Russia, by contrast, backed India’s right to self-defense after Pahalgam, urged restraint later, and maintained its energy partnership – interests, not affections, but aligned.
In upholding its sovereignty, India reaffirmed principles that many nations also espouse but often struggle to uphold
At its core, Sindoor was the most compelling demonstration yet of Prime Minister Modi’s twin doctrines: Make in India (मेक इन इंडिया) and Aatmanirbhar Bharat (आत्मनिर्भर भारत अभियान – Self-Reliant India).
They are industrial policy turned operational doctrine – sovereignty-oriented, not isolationist – built for an age of weaponized interdependence. In the Indian lexicon, self-reliance is not isolation – it is integrity. It means producing what we deploy, and standing behind what we produce. In Sindoor, that philosophy translated into moral precision.
Netra, BrahMos, Akash, ISR/space assets and real-time C2 fused a local kill chain; detection-to-strike in hours.
Sindoor exemplified calibrated force below the nuclear threshold: no territory seized, terror infrastructure destroyed, escalation control retained. A doctrine long theorized – India implemented it. It also shattered Islamabad’s nuclear-blackmail premium, proving that calibrated precision can defeat coercive deterrence.
Claims of downed Rafales and civilian casualties failed OSINT/satellite checks; the deepfake blitz mirrored Tehran-Ankara playbooks the West knows too well.
Weaker LeT/JeM lowers diaspora-network risks and stabilizes Gulf-to-Europe routes. Sindoor is now a case study in space-drone-cyber-industrial deterrence.
Dwivedi invoked Dharma-Yudh; Shah vowed pursuit “to the gates of hell”; Modi set precision and professionalism as the standard.
The West should acknowledge that dismantling LeT/JeM is a Western interest; that sovereignty, legality and escalation control can coexist; that Make in India/Aatmanirbhar Bharat engineer strategic autonomy; and that moral clarity, not “neutrality”, underpins true partnership.
India today produces security as a global public good – sustaining the liberal order others merely claim to defend. The West keeps enjoying the fruits of Indian security while faulting the gardener.
Sindoor wasn’t “about Kashmir” – it operationalized the lessons of 2019, 2008 and 9/11 and translated Make in India into deterrent excellence.
In an age where democracies question their own resolve, India proved that strength and conscience can coexist. Its battlefields remain local – but its message is universal. India fought for itself – and for those who hesitate to admit it.
- Shay Gal is a strategic analyst and advisor specializing in international security, diplomatic strategy, and crisis management at the intersection of defense and geopolitics. He advises senior government and defense leaders and works across the global arena on power relations, geopolitical strategy, and public diplomacy – shaping policy and decision-making in complex international environments. Previously, Gal served as vice president of external relations at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
- This is an Opinion Article. Views personal of the Author
