Why the Name ‘Operation Sindoor’ Must be Examined Closely

New Delhi: Not many Indians would remember that the Indian government’s deadly strike at the Karachi airport which broke the back of the Pakistan Navy in the 1971 war, was called Trident — named after the deadly weapon, the Trishul, carried by Lord Shiva.

If you can’t recall the name of that decisive Indian operation from the 1971 war against Pakistan which India won decisively, and which altered the course of history for the sub-continent, the answer is that the government of the day had then treated it as a national security operation — not to wield the ‘trident’ to its domestic constituency for political messaging. Let alone establish prime minister Indira Gandhi as the leader of a muscular government; the ‘Durga’ who could teach Pakistan a lesson at will.

Fifty-five years later, on the morning of May 7, Indians across the country woke up to another Indian operation in Pakistan, code-named ‘Operation Sindoor.’ This Indian operation that struck at nine strategic locations within Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to hit terrorist dens across the border, is not comparable to ‘Operation Trident’ — not in terms of its effect, certainly not in terms of its aim. That’s because unlike Operation Trident, Operation Sindoor is also expected to deliver dividends in domestic politics to the government of the day, or rather the Prime Minister. 

The BJP’s impromptu slick video making the PM and not the armed forces the hero of the moment bears ample witness to that.

Indian military operations against Pakistan, thus far, have been named variously; mostly to signify valour and national resolve — Operation Vijay was to take back Kargil during the Prime Ministership of Atal Vihari Vajpayee; Operation Meghdoot to secure the Siachen glacier from Pakistan army in 1984; and Operation Parakram was to flush out terrorists during the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. The security operation against the Pakistan-backed terrorists striking Mumbai in 2008 was named Operation Black Tornado. That was the last big civilian attack in India by Pak-backed terrorists before the horrific Pahalgam terror attack took place.

But Operation Sindoor would likely stand apart from all these previous Indian operations against Pakistan or Pak-backed terrorists, primarily because it has been named specifically to send out a political message to the domestic constituency.

Prior to Operation Sindoor, the political benefit of the 2019 Balakot airstrike against a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp was reaped by the Modi government in the 2019 general elections, but let’s not overlook that the name, Balakot, was drawn from a Pakistani town where the air strikes were carried out by India. Such a name  also has its uses. That strike had since popularised the term then used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — ghar me ghus ke margenge (We will enter your homes to kill you). The May 6-7 operation is also an extension of that political term utilised against Pakistan by the ruling party but Sindoor, in coming times, can be way more potent than Balakot from the Hindutva lens. The protector has finally risen to the occasion to protect the honour of the Hindu women?

As expected, by 10 am on May 7, the Modi government’s first political messaging to its domestic constituency through the specificity of the name of the military operation was made visible. Two women officers were strategically picked to address the first press briefing in New Delhi on the post midnight operation with a carefully designed logo also officially displayed. 

Media reports at once highlighted that their presence was to signify a revenge taken by the widows of those killed in that horrific attack in Baisaran on April 22 whereby their ‘sindoor’ (the Hindu vermilion mark signifying their married status) was wiped out.  

No sooner did the news about the operation break, BJP social media handles began highlighting the name of the military operation in Pakistan to feed the notion of raw, brawn power of the Modi government. Pro-government news channels have begun taking that political messaging forward. A Times Now headline said: “Behno ka chheena thaa sindoor, Ab chatai dhool (Those who snatched away our sisters’ vermilion have now been taught a lesson).”

Simultaneous to the press briefing, hundreds of phones pinged across the country, carrying messages from various BJP leaders celebrating Modi for carrying out Operation Sindoor. One such WhatsApp message sent out by senior party leader Sunil Deodhar said — “Ghar me ghus kar mara hai, kabar tumhari khodi hai; Bharat ki gaddi par betha, baap tumhara Modi hai. Operation Sindoor.” (We have entered your homes to kill you; we have dug your graves; your grand daddy Modi is sitting on the chair that rules Bharat).

The messages sent out by the ruling party through media and social media celebrating Operation Sindoor is understandable considering the military operation was also to have some control over the huge pressure that had built up domestically since the terror act; many had rightly questioned whether there was any security lapse leading to so many deaths of innocent people. 

It is noteworthy that during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, PM Modi specifically made another marker of HIndu matrimony, the mangalsutra, a political message, by telling crowds first in Rajasthan and then in other towns that the opposition Congress “was after their women’s mangalsutras.” After the Pehalgam attack, some satirists remarked on the irony of the Modi government’s security failure having cost 26 women their mangalsutra.

Many from within the right wing ecosystem also wanted Modi to be seen taking punitive action against Pakistan at once. Not having seen it coming, the frustration was growing. Hours before Operation Sindoor, former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik had told The Wire that Modi “won’t do anything”; he is a “darpok” (coward). Malik had, in fact, held up the opinion of the domestic constituency that had wanted to see Modi act on his strong words against Pakistan too; and thereby continue to live up to his muscular image. 

In the days to come, the Modi government naming a military operation after sindoor, the hallmark of a devoted Hindu wife in a patriarchy, may likely come under academic scanner too, considering it is the first time a gender related nomenclature has been appended to an Indian security operation. But what must be attached to it is also the fact that some brave widows of the Pahalgam terror act did feel abandoned by the same forces who are now celebrating a revenge supposedly taken in the name of their ‘Sindoor’. 

Those women were heavily trolled and shamed simply because what they had said publicly even after suffering huge personal losses seemed to have not quite matched the dominant narrative that the ruling party had hoped from the Pahalgam episode. No top leader of the party or the Sangh Parivar came forward in the support of those widows who chose to speak up against communalising their personal loss. 

Today’s rejoicing within the Sangh Parivar ecosystem is another example of the use of a message which has been handed over to them by the Modi government. The purpose is to once again try and dominate the public narrative over the more pertinent questions of the serious internal security lapse and loss of 26 lives that had cast a long shadow over the public conversation.