However, the current bout of escalation is not simply a product of traditional cross-border tensions; it is progressively driven by unilateralism, ideological fanaticism, strategic hostility, and a deliberate breakdown of engagement. At the heart of this crisis lies a troubling shift in India’s strategic posture by Prime Minister Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) regime—one that depicts itself as a victim of terrorism, whilst actively deploying state-sponsored tactics abroad and vigorously repressing dissent at home.
Following the Pehalgam attack—within minutes—New Delhi has predictably assumed and pointed fingers at Islamabad, alleging its links with non-state actors that India deems responsible for the attack. While Pakistan denies the assertion and labels the incident as a false-flag operation, this Indian narrative based on house of cards is not only reductive, it is increasingly hypocritical and must be weighed against thus far established facts on ground and hard-core matter of record that India itself has engaged in state-sponsored terrorism and extra-judicial transnational killings—most infamously through the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer convicted in Pakistan for terrorism, espionage, and sabotage in Balochistan province, and more recently through New Delhi’s alleged support and association with proscribed terrorist groups such as Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—responsible for innumerable suicide bombings and mass casualty terror attacks across Pakistan—and its latest partnership with international criminal gangs to assassinate adversaries and political activists of Indian origin, particularly in Canada and America, right under state patronage.
India’s current behaviour—both rhetorically and operationally—raises serious alarms about its character as a self-proclaimed pluralist democracy that is bound by ideal principles of justice, laws, transparency, and accountability. By placing itself as judge, jury, and executioner, New Delhi increasingly acts without the burden of proof—launching cross-border airstrikes, incursions, and economic blockades—under the cover of so-called “pre-emptive defence.” This erosion of international norms undermines the rules-based international order that India claims to support and sets a dangerous precedent in one of the world’s most volatile nuclear flashpoints.
A critical driver of this shift is the ideological influence on BJP government of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a paramilitary-style far-right Hindu nationalist group that has been banned, and then reinstated, multiple times in India, primarily for its alleged involvement in violence since its inception in 1925—and its vision of Hindutva, an ethno-nationalist political movement that rests on hostility to Islam and prioritises factors like race, territory, and nativism to see India as a civilizational state defined by Hindu identity. Under this vision, Pakistan is not just a geopolitical adversary but a cultural and religious rival. This ideological framing fuels a policy of total disengagement, wherein dialogue, diplomacy, and even cultural exchanges are systematically dismantled.
India’s consistent refusal to engage with Pakistan in cricket, art, academia, debate, and diplomacy is emblematic of this broader enmity. Pakistani artists are routinely banned, cricketers shunned, and talks rejected—all under various pretexts that mask a growing intolerance toward Islamic identity and Muslim-majority nations. These actions not only fracture regional people-to-people ties but are cynically used to serve BJP’s nefarious domestic political agendas—which is to subjugate Muslims, consolidate majoritarian votes, distract masses from governance failures, and suppress internal dissent.
From persistent Hindu mob lynchings of Muslims at home to state-sponsored cross-border terrorism in Pakistan and the region to state-sanctioned transnational extra-judicial killings across the globe, India has incessantly showcased itself as a belligerent rogue state that is now hostage to this vile Hindutva ideology.
Adding another layer to this complex web of deceit is India’s disinformation strategy, revealed starkly by Brussels-based independent organisation—the EU DisinfoLab’s investigation termed as “Indian Chronicles”—which uncovered a network of fake NGOs, think tanks, and media outlets created and consumed across the world to discredit and tarnish Pakistan’s image on international platforms over the course of last few decades. Far from being a passive victim of propaganda, India has actively participated in global narrative manipulation through tapestry of deception, while projecting itself as a shiny responsible actor.
What is unravelling in South Asia is not just a bilateral spat; it is a region that is being dragged toward ultimate war by hyper-nationalist Hindutva philosophy driven by supremacist socio-political zeal, jingoistic fervour, strategic deception, and state-sponsored animosity. The international community should be prudent of simplistic narratives that paint one side as an unequivocal instigator, and the other as a virtuous democracy. The situation demands a more honest appraisal of all players, including those who wear the cloak of world’s largest democracy while behaving like aggressive rogue states.
As India’s internal politics grow more exclusionary and its external policies more aggressive, the cost of miscalculation becomes dangerously high. A potential all-out war between two nuclear-armed neighbours cannot be seen merely through the lens of counterterrorism—it must be recognized for what it is—a crisis of ideology, accountability, and restraint. The time for complacency has passed. A regional and international recalibration is urgently needed to avoid major calamity and the only pathway is dialogue, diplomacy, and deliberation.