Modi is Maun: How the Sudden Ceasefire Marred the Prime Minister's PR Script

The Wire

28-05-2025

The Wire had in these columns narrated how Narendra Modi had often lampooned his predecessor as ' Maunmohan' Singh but how he had himself sought the cover of silence as prime minister. Since then, there is a lengthening list of Modi's silences on crucial issues facing the nation. The latest entry on the list is the total maun on Donald Trump's repeated claims that he had forced a ceasefire on India and Pakistan.
Modi, who had a highly publicised meeting with the US President in February, had gone out of his way to pamper Trump's ego, including on issues such as the US demand for defence purchases. For three months this year, the entire Modi establishment was pressed into wooing Washington, first to get a meeting with Trump and then to charm the big boss by all available means, which included offering trade and policy concessions. Before that, in Trump's first term, Modi had tried to build a personal rapport, inviting Ivanka Trump to visit India, hosting the 'Namaste Trump' event in Ahmedabad, and attending the 'Howdy, Modi' gathering in Houston.
Pandering to Trump was hailed as Modi's 'smart' diplomacy by the godi media, which boasted that India would be the first country to sign a tariff treaty with the US.
Now, suddenly, the Modi regime is left to encounter the realities of the liaison and the prime minister has been forced into a humiliating maun – on Trump's claim that he brought about the ceasefire and leveraged trade to do it. Trump repeated this claim multiple times, including after the godi media reported a significant 'walk back' by Washington.
Modi, in his post-ceasefire addresses, took the position that repeated assaults by Indian missiles and drones had caused so much damage to the military infrastructure of Pakistan that they reached out for a ceasefire, and the Indian side agreed. But he carefully avoided any mention of Trump.
This despite the fact that Trump's remarks were to the point and unequivocal. 'I said, 'Come on. We are going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it… If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade',' the US President recounted to White House correspondents on May 12.
Clearly, India's 'strong leader' is caught between his aspiration to emerge as national war hero and thus sweep the polls with a two-thirds majority on the one hand and be a trusted Trump buddy on the other.
The Opposition Congress has raised three pertinent questions. They remain unanswered. These are:
Compare Modi's ceasefire with the way Indira Gandhi had handled the 1971 India-Pakistan war, when there was intense pressure from the US and its NATO allies to end hostilities. In December, President Richard Nixon had ordered the US Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal. It was a formidable challenge aimed at bending India. But unlike on May 10, 2025, Indira Gandhi did not agree to cease fire. Instead, Indian forces marched into Dhaka and liberated Bangladesh. That was the kind of courage we lack today.
One casualty of the sudden ceasefire might have been an ambitious plan to project Modi as a leader in the mould of post-1971-war Indira Gandhi. Journalists covering the PMO and the BJP were talking of such a campaign, involving the civil defence and air raid networks, to be augmented by print and television media, social media warriors, pro-government analysts, professional motivators and influencers.
The first mock drill since 1971 was conducted on May 7, with air raid sirens going off around the country and civilians being trained to protect themselves. Modi's cheerleaders began chanting, ' Jo bola so kiya (did what he said he would)'. The allies lined up behind the leader – Chandrababu Naidu said he supported Modi, as did Nitish Kumar and Chirag Paswan. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath launched an advertisement campaign.
The build-up appeared to be aimed at ensuring that Modi would sweep the next election with a two-thirds majority, enough to allow the introduction of a 'one election, one party, one leader' regime and presidential style politics.
However, on May 12, two days after Trump announced the ceasefire, the BJP leadership decided to settle for a considerably diluted programme – an 11-day 'Tiranga Yatra.' The abrupt ceasefire must have been the reason for the climbdown.
Any debate on the four-day India-Pakistan hostilities will not be complete without a relook into the Pahalgam massacre and the events leading to the terrorist attack. In all, 26 innocent civilians were killed on April 22 when the terrorists emerged suddenly from the jungles and began firing, with no counter-action from security forces anywhere in sight.
'There was nothing there, no army, no police, no facilities,' said the grieving widow of a victim at his funeral. 'But when VIPs or big leaders visit, there are dozens of cars, helicopters flying overhead. Who pays for all this? We, the common people, the tax payers. Why no protection for us?' she asked in tears.
At the all-party meeting on April 24, the government admitted lapses and claimed that tourists were allowed into the area without the permission of the administration.
However, a closer look will reveal that it was not a communication gap, as the government claims, but that the entire administrative apparatus has got entrapped in a chakrayuh of North Block's loud boasts. To justify scrapping Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and the subsequent draconian impositions, home minister Amit Shah has repeatedly said that normality had returned to the region and that there has been all-round progress.
In November, Shah had claimed success in fighting terrorism and said the government would soon come out with a 'national counter-terrorism policy and strategy'. Nothing has been heard on that since.
By far the most categorical 'all-is-well' assertion in Jammu and Kashmir was on April 8, just days before the terrorists struck at Pahalgam. That day, Shah told a state-level review meeting: 'Due to the sustained and coordinated efforts of the Modi government, the entire terror ecosystem has been crippled. The Modi government is working with an unwavering resolve….'
Such assertions from the top might have lulled the administration into complacence, which resulted in 26 people getting killed. It was self-delusion that has led us to what can be described as an archetypal case of the Hubris syndrome. Hubris syndrome, a term coined by former British foreign secretary David Owen, refers to the change in the behaviour of politicians and business leaders as they continue in power and lose touch with reality.
Amit Shah has been caught in his own propaganda trap. Opposition leaders had repeatedly questioned his claims. Early this year, chief minister Omar Abdullah had disputed Shah's assertion that normality had returned to Jammu and Kashmir. A month before the massacre, the state Congress had cited several incidents of terrorist activities to hit out at the government for nursing the 'illusion of calm'. Clearly, the government wasn't listening.
P. Raman is a veteran journalist.