Peacenik to architect of ‘ghar mein ghus ke marenge'—180-degree turn in Modi's Pakistan policy

The Print

18-05-2025

This new doctrine is a 180-degree turn from when Modi first came to power in 2014, thinking, as most Indian prime ministers did, that he could achieve the historic task of lasting peace with the fraternal rival.
According to the three-point doctrine, India will no longer differentiate between terrorists and governments sponsoring them, not fall for 'nuclear blackmail', and respond to acts of terror on its terms, at a time and place of its choosing.
New Delhi: Days after India and Pakistan's agreement to halt all military hostilities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a 22-minute address to the nation Monday, delineated a new doctrine towards Pakistan and terrorism, calling Operation Sindoor not a one-off response but 'new normal' for India.
His unexpected overtures to Pakistan—inviting ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, along with the other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders, for his first swearing-in, or his December 2015 surprise visit to Lahore—were steps in this direction.
However, after successive terror attacks—from the January 2016 Pathankot attack and the Uri attack in September the same year to the February 2019 Pulwama attack and the Pahalgam attack this April—Modi's posture towards Pakistan has consistently been getting more aggressive.
India's surgical strikes post-Uri attack, which seemingly started as a one-off response, has now been fleshed out into a full-fledged policy doctrine, one gaugeable through Modi's changing responses after the Pakistani establishment-sponsored terrorist attacks.
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The unlikely peacemaker
In the 2014 elections, Modi, then-prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, raked up Pakistan repeatedly while hitting out at his rivals for political point-scoring in domestic politics.
Three 'AK-s' help Pakistan, Modi once said, referring to AK-47 and former defence minister A.K. Antony, as well as an alluded reference to Arvind Kejriwal. This comment was consistent with his stand on Pakistan as an opposition leader.
In 2002, during the Gujarat elections, Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, famously referred to the then Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, as 'Mian Musharraf'.
But immediately after coming to power at the Centre, his posture changed from belligerent to conciliatory.
In 2014, a PM, for the first time, called all SAARC leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, for his swearing-in. Modi called Sharif, weeks later, wishing him for Ramzan and stressing the need for 'peaceful' and 'friendly' bilateral ties. He then pulled off a big surprise by stopping by in Lahore—after a day-long trip to Afghanistan, and a two-day visit to Russia—making him the first PM to visit Pakistan in 10 years. The last PM who visited Pakistan was Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004.
'For sure, Modi's first instincts as PM were very much like those of Vajpayee—both started off wanting to intensely engage with Pakistan,' said former high commissioner of India to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria.
'In the first two years between 2014-15, there was intense diplomatic activity between India and Pakistan. Modi himself met Nawaz Sharif four-five times…We were poised to start a composite dialogue with Pakistan,' Bisaria, who was posted as High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2016-2019, said.
However, an attack on the Indian Air Force base on 2 January, 2016, in Pathankot within weeks of Modi's Lahore visit, sought to vitiate the warm bonhomie that the two prime ministers, Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif, were developing.
The attack was foiled, and Modi's immediate response was simply that the 'enemies of humanity who cannot see India progress' planned the attack. Without any words on retaliation, he said, 'I want to assure our countrymen that our armed forces have the strength to defeat the evil designs of our enemy.'
In a reconciliatory gesture, Nawaz Sharif called Modi, and the Indian government statement was that Modi 'strongly emphasised the need for Pakistan to take firm and immediate action against the organisations and individuals, responsible for and linked to the Pathankot terrorist attack'. It added that 'specific and actionable information' had been shared with Pakistan.
A multi-agency Pakistani investigation team, including the Inter-Services Intelligence officers, arrived in India to examine the site of the terrorist attack, giving Pakistani authorities unprecedented access to a terror site in India.
The decision to invite the Pakistani team reportedly went against the instincts of the defence ministry, as part of 'a larger foreign policy calculation' by Modi. What seems ironic now is that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, at the time, accused Modi of going too soft on Pakistan.
The investigation team, however, reportedly said that 'the attack was a drama staged to malign Pakistan' and that the Indian authorities had prior information about the terrorists.
Some commentators have argued that the Pakistani investigation team's report was a moment of 'epiphany' for Modi. Afterwards, he kept becoming more aggressive in his policy towards Pakistan.
However, according to Bisaria, it was the summer of 2016, in which deadly violence rocked the Kashmir valley after militant leader Burhan Wani was killed in a gun battle with government forces, that changed Modi's posture towards Pakistan. 'Even Pathankot didn't dissuade Modi, and we gave them the benefit of doubt,' he said. 'But the summer of 2016 in Kashmir began to change this.'
Uri attack: Beginning of the reversal
Months after India foiled the Pathankot attack, four Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, on 18 September, 2016, successfully attacked the headquarters of an Indian Army brigade near Uri, killing 19 Indian soldiers and injuring many others.
This time, Modi immediately promised retaliation. 'Those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished,' he wrote on 'X'.
Yet, he did not launch an all-out rhetorical attack on Pakistan. Instead, he sought to strike a balance by differentiating between the Pakistani establishment and the Pakistani people.
Reaching out to the latter, Modi said, 'I want to address the people of Pakistan today … Your rulers are misleading you by singing songs on Kashmir and reading out scripts written by terrorists on Kashmir. You should ask your leaders why India, created along with Pakistan, exports software, and Pakistan exports terror … You should ask them why they were not able to handle East Pakistan, and why they [now] cannot handle PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir], Gilgit, Sindh, Balochistan and 'Pashtunistan (land of the Pashtuns)'?'
Modi added that India was ready for a war with Pakistan on poverty, unemployment and illiteracy. 'Let us see who wins'.
Days later, India conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan. The Army crossed the Line of Control to destroy terror launchpads in the PoK.
Modi did not make a statement immediately after the strikes. However, he did invoke the strikes during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, albeit rhetorically.
Speaking of the strikes in an interview in 2019, however, he indicated that military retaliation against terror attacks could become a matter of policy.
'It would be improper to discuss the matter in the public domain…but it would be a big mistake to think that Pakistan will start behaving after one fight. It will take a long time for Pakistan to start behaving,' Modi said, explaining what the surgical strikes achieved.
Pulwama: Turning point
When terror struck again, in Pulwama on 14 February 2019, targeting a convoy and killing 40 of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the vehicles, Modi was unforgiving.
'I want to tell the terror outfits and those aiding and abetting them that they have made a big mistake. They will have to pay quite a heavy price for their actions,' he said in a public address, a day after the attack. 'Let me assure the nation, those behind this attack, the perpetrators of this attack, would be punished.'
After 13 days, the Modi government launched air strikes in Pakistan. A dozen Air Force Mirage fighter jets streaked roughly 20 km past the Line of Control into Pakistan territory, targeting Jaish training camps in Balakot.
The attack and the retaliation happened close to the 2019 general elections. The air strikes featured extensively in the BJP election campaign.
At this time, Modi, for the first time, popularised the 'ghar mein ghus ke marenge' strategy as a response to Pakistan establishment-supported terrorism. At a gathering, a week after the Balakot airstrikes, he vowed to target 'them (terrorists) even if they hide in the bowels of the earth'.
'We would not lag when it comes to taking big and bitter decisions,' Modi said. 'Humara siddhant hai, hum ghar me ghus ke marenge (It is our principle to kill them by barging into their houses).'
Since then, the phrase has become emblematic of his counterterrorism policy, one now fully fleshed out and institutionalised with Operation Sindoor.
Op Sindoor: From posture to policy
After the attack in Pahalgam on 22 April, 2025, Modi's first statement left little to the imagination. 'Our enemies have dared to attack the country's soul. I want to say this clearly—the terrorists behind the killings, along with their backers, will get a punishment bigger than they can imagine,' he said, addressing a gathering in Bihar. India would pursue the attackers to 'the ends of the earth', he further said.
On 7 May, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), leading to a military escalation with Pakistan for three days before a ceasefire announcement on 10 May.
Addressing the nation two days later, Modi, for the first time, delineated India's three-point doctrine towards Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
'We will not differentiate between the government sponsoring terrorism and the masterminds of terrorism,' he said. 'During Operation Sindoor, the world has again seen the ugly face of Pakistan—when top Pakistani army officers came to bid farewell to the slain terrorists. It is strong evidence of state-sponsored terrorism. We will continue our decisive steps to protect India and our citizens from threats.'
A day later, in an address to Indian soldiers from the Adampur Air Force Base in Punjab, Modi said, 'After the surgical strike and air strike, now Operation Sindoor is India's policy against terrorism. Operation Sindoor has carved out a new benchmark in our fight against terrorism and set up a new parameter and normal.'
'First, if there is a terrorist attack on India, there will be a fitting reply,' Modi enunciated. 'India's stand is quite clear…Terror and talks cannot go together…Terror and trade cannot go together…Water and blood cannot flow together.'
Talks with Pakistan would only be on terrorism and PoK, he added.
'It is fair to say that the security posture after Uri has become a doctrine now,' Bisaria said. 'The view now is clearly that the Pakistan issue is limited to terrorism, and the Pakistan problem has to be dealt with through a counter-terrorism strategy,' he said.
'Both Vajpayee and Modi started with the same peace-driven instincts, but both learnt their lessons after their efforts came to nought.'
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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