The heinous massacre of 26 civilians at Pahalgam on April 22, 2025 was the largest civilian casualties in a terrorist attack on Indian soil since the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008. Indian armed forces retaliated through selective cross border air strikes under Operation Sindoor, claiming to have inflicted casualties and infrastructural damage on terrorists and their backers in the Pakistan military. However, the NIA investigation is yet to identify the perpetrators of Pahalgam terror attack and bring them to justice.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already declared achievement of the objectives of Operation Sindoor while not disclosing the modus vivendi underlying the sudden ceasefire, which was first announced by US President Donald Trump on his X handle. The prime minister has further announced a new anti-terror doctrine, threatening military retaliation in case of any future terror attack emanating from Pakistan, defying “nuclear blackmail”.The absence of transparency in the Modi regime’s actions and pronouncements have created political and strategic confusion, which does not augur well for national security. It is imperative that a parliament session be convened soon to deliberate on ways to repair India’s security architecture, addressing the lapses underlying the Pahalgam terror attacks, NIA’s investigation and an objective review of Operation Sindoor. Prime Minister Modi’s new anti-terror doctrine also deserves an informed parliamentary debate.Mimicking failed modelsThe contemporary source template of the new security doctrine is not difficult to detect. Entire chapters have been copy-pasted from the Israeli playbook, unmindful of the disastrous consequences of war and genocide that was inflicted on Gaza’s civilian population following Hamas’ terror attack inside Israel and hostage-taking in October 2023.Israel’s security doctrine has not only inflicted self-harm and diplomatic isolation; it is also a non-starter for India as a security template for a plethora of historical, ideological and geo-strategic factors. The essential contrast is simple – it serves nobody’s interest, including that of India and Pakistan, to risk a full-scale war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, which can cause mutually assured destruction. The logic of the prime minister’s new doctrine seeks to move India in that irreversible, high-risk direction of military conflict, albeit with a lower, calibrated velocity. This makes India less, not more secure as a nation.Moreover, military escalation would inevitably attract international intervention, as was witnessed in the case of Operation Sindoor. The essence of the Modi government’s position is that it wants the global powers to intervene only to end Pakistan sponsored terrorism but not in resolving the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. This selective, self-serving departure from the Simla agreement framework is not tenable in the eyes of the international community.What is required in this regard is a strategy to pin down the modus operandi of Pakistan military sponsored terrorism through rigorous investigations into the Pahalgam attacks and single minded pursuit of punitive justice. This should be combined with diplomatic efforts to isolate Pakistan’s military-terrorist complex, on the lines undertaken after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.As the experience of the US and Israel’s war on terrorism has shown, vengeful military offensives following terror attacks only result in the proliferation of terrorism and religious extremism. The prime minister’s new anti-terror doctrine carries the risk of further strengthening the grip of the military-terrorist complex inside Pakistan. The prerequisite for dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism inside Pakistan, however, is the weakening of military power and restoration of civilian rule.Rather than opening up democratic debate over this anti-terror doctrine, much of India’s mainstream media is busy smothering dissent and manufacturing consent in its favour. Indian electronic media has transmogrified into pathetic warmongering machines, peddling disinformation, conducting psyops on its own people and squeezing sensibility out of public discourse. The troll armies in the social media have flourished in this milieu, spewing venomous and misogynistic hatred against any voice dissenting to war and bloodshed. Targeted victims of such insane cyber-lynching during Operation Sindoor include the widow of the naval officer killed by the terrorists in Pahalgam and the daughter of the foreign secretary.In trying to beat their Pakistani counterparts in the game of jingoism and religious bigotry, India’s far right ecosystem is vitiating India’s secular democracy and seeking to undermine its constitutional order. The radical right fails to draw lessons from Pakistan’s internal plight today; ridden with internecine violence, terrorism, political assassinations, suppression of democracy and civil liberties, corruption, persistent mass poverty and deprivation combined with economic instability. This should serve as a grim reminder of the inevitable end game of a rightwing, religio-militarist trajectory, which is also threatening the future of post-Hasina Bangladesh.It is a matter of shame that Prime Minister Modi has failed to utter a single word deploring the hideous excesses of his ideological fellow travellers during Operation Sindoor and its aftermath, even as his government clamped down on factual reporting of the conflict by independent media outlets like The Wire. Ironically, in trying to combat Pakistan’s military-backed terrorism, India is increasingly being recast in Pakistan’s own image.Reasserting secularismThe speech made by Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir on April 17, 2025 at a convention for overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad – where he asserted the two-nation theory, emphasised the differences between Hindus and Muslims and referred to Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein”.The terrorists had evidently taken the cue from the same mindset, when they segregated 25 Hindu men from the rest of the tourists, by forcing them at gunpoint to disclose their religious identity and shooting them dead. However, a Kashmiri Muslim pony-ride operator who tried to resist this diabolic barbarity, shield the tourists and even snatch a firearm from a terrorist was also shot dead. He was clearly not in agreement with General Munir’s bigoted worldview.Indian armed forces commendably carried forward this message of ideological resistance to religious sectarianism, by fielding two articulate women officers; a Hindu and a Muslim; to brief the media during Operation Sindoor. Sharply rebutting Pakistan’s allegations of mosques being targeted in the Indian air strikes they said: “Let us make this very clear here that India is a secular nation and the Indian Armed Forces are a reflection of our constitutional values. We hold every place of worship of all faiths in the highest regard. Our operations have been aimed exclusively at terrorist camps and facilities being used for anti-India activities.”This simple yet profound ideological messaging against the communal two nation theory, however, is missing from the prime ,inister’s utterances till date. Historically, Prime Minister Modi’s ideological forefathers in the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha were in agreement with General Munir’s forefathers of the Muslim League, on the two nation theory. Neither of the religious nationalists agreed with the composite nationalism and religious pluralism preached by the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution.In order to prevail over Pakistan’s military-terrorism complex today, it is the secular and democratic Constitution of India which comprises its foremost ideological differentiator and strategic asset. To leverage it, however, Prime Minister Modi and his party need to immediately effect a ceasefire on the subversive war they have been waging against the Indian Constitution from within, by targeting, vilifying and persecuting India’s minority Muslim community.The recent legislation on the management of Waqf assets in India passed by both houses of parliament, is a glaring example of how constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and federalism are being trampled at the altar of a majoritarian, divisive project. The Waqf Amendment Act, 2025 has come as a sequel to several discriminatory laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and abrogation of Article 370 enacted by parliament and uniform civil code legislations passed by several state assemblies. These laws are steadily eroding the fundamental rights of Indian Muslims, effectively relegating them to the status of second-class citizens.A regime of systemic discrimination against the Muslims in India would be singularly ill-equipped to fight the ideological battle against General Munir’s two-nation theory. This is where India needs an immediate strategic reset if it wants to succeed in its diplomatic efforts.Moreover, the Modi government’s policies in Jammu and Kashmir, including the abrogation of Article 370, need to be thoroughly reviewed. Securing and normalising the lives and livelihoods of those badly affected by Pakistani shelling and aerial combat across the LoC must be accorded priority.Gaping holes in the security apparatus have to be closed on an urgent basis to prevent any cross border infiltration and terrorist attacks. Full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, along with all the constitutionally guaranteed rights of political parties and civil liberties must be restored without further delay.Such a strategic reset; geared towards upholding the secular and democratic basis of the Indian Constitution, reviving the political and democratic processes in J&K, bringing the perpetrators of Pahalgam terror attack to justice and diplomatic efforts to isolate Pakistan’s military-terrorism complex; can make India more secure in the days to come. This can come about only if the parliament is allowed to discuss and debate the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.Prasenjit Bose is an economist and activist based in Kolkata.