The Mind of Modi

THE ELITES AND POLITICAL PUNDITS did not even contemplate Modi ever being the BJP’s PM face, leave alone becoming PM. Had the BJP leadership itself been asked the question at that time, they would have themselves perhaps ruled it out. Despite two consecutive electoral defeats, LK Advani was still aspiring for the job. The elites were in for a shock when, in June 2013, BJP announced Modi, the only eminently winnable candidate, as the head of its 2014 Election Campaign Committee. Advani resigned all his party positions.

 Ten weeks later, the rising swell of its ground cadre, who sensed victory, led the BJP leadership to announce Modi as PM candidate. This proved to be a masterstroke. For the next eight months, with diminishing hope, the elites thought that surely Narendra Modi could not be the prime minister of India. Disconnected with ground realities, they failed to appreciate that the country was desperately yearning for Narendra Modi to end the sleeping beauty act of Dr Manmohan Singh.

The (anti-BJP) elites simply cannot distinguish between Hindu cultural national­ism, on the one hand, and rabid communalism targeting a minority, on the other. The shadow of religion must fall nowhere near the State, they believe. Even if the 2002 riots had never happened, they would have still been antithetical to Narendra Modi. The elites have still not realized that even beyond Modi, India wants its prime minister to be a nationalist and that the emergence of the Hindu nation as a civilizational and cultural way of life is inevitable.

A nationalist leader who worships Lord Rama in a temple, meditates in Kanyakumari and fasts during Navratri embarrasses them. The truth is that this section of the elite is increasingly in a hopeless micro-minority in the thought space of the country.

THE STEALTH STRIKE ON ARTICLE 370

Operation 370 had to be executed swiftly and stealthily. Strategic planning, extraordinary secrecy and great speed was required to prevent possible unrest in Kashmir and a diplomatic backlash, as also a possible last-minute judicial intervention by the courts. On June 1, 2019, Amit Shah, on his first day in office, was informed for the first time by Modi about the various options on the table which had been explored by Modi and a core team of secretaries during the last five years. Modi outlined in detail the extensive work done and the strategies considered over the last five years as also the steps taken. The key challenges were highlighted. So far, not a single leak had occurred and absolute secrecy going forward was paramount.

Modi made it clear that years of diligent hard work would depend upon the accuracy of the planning and action over the next two months. Modi’s instructions to his new Home Minister were crystal clear. Abrogation of Article 370 must pass all three tests —parliamentary scrutiny and approval, acceptance by the public and the inevitable ju­dicial review. The D-day would be in early August. ‘Plan, Prepare and Execute’ was Modi’s motto. Smokescreens and diversions had to be created within the government to ensure that there was absolutely no leak.

In July 2019, the government received credible intelligence about serious terror threats to pilgrims during the AmarnathYatra. Pulwama was fresh in the public mind, where the terrorists had shown hitherto unbelievable audacity by killing Indian soldiers. As a response to this threat, the Government rushed tens of thousands of additional troops to Kashmir. Sunday, 4th August 2019, was like any other public holiday but that night, Kash­miris suddenly found their mobile phones, landlines and internet had stopped working.

…To unravel the legal minefield was a huge challenge. Stripped of legalese, the Article itself provided that it could be made “inop­erative” if recommended to the President of India by the Constituent Assembly of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which body had been dissolved as early as 1957. Thus, the extinguishing power under Article 370(3) was vested in the President of India. The question, however, was as to who was to recommend the same to the President. Team Modi then hit upon a brilliant constitutional solution, after discarding several other options to achieve the same result. On 5th and 6th August 2019, the President of India, issued two Constitu­tional Orders (CO), 272 and 273, first amending Article 367 to substitute the expression Constituent Assembly of J&K with “Legislative Assembly” of J&K. At that moment, J&K was under President’s Rule and there was no Assembly, and therefore, under the Constitution, the Parliament of India was empowered to exercise the powers of the state Assembly. The Second CO nullified Article 370, as provided in Article 370(3) itself, like a poison pill, and applied all provisions of the Indian Constitution to J&K. The Home Minister introduced a legislation in Parliament splitting the state into two Union Territories, that is, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The plan was to push through the legislation on the same day in Rajya Sabha where BJP still did not have a majority. Failure was simply non-negotiable. Ul­timately, the Rajya Sabha comfortably passed it on the same day with support from non-NDA parties, including Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal, BSP, AAP, TDP and the Tamil AIADMK, and a handful of independents.The next day, on August 6th, in the Lok Sabha, where BJP enjoyed a clear majority, the Bill passed like a hot knife through butter. The government secured a 2/3 majority in both Houses…Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee had been avenged. Narendra Modi had discharged the promise his party had made 68 years ago to the people of India. Article 370 was now history.

…in the Supreme Court of India (it was argued) that the abrogation was constitutionally and legally invalid. It was contended that the abrogation was illegal and unconstitutional because there was no consent from J&K’s elected representa­tives; it undermined the principles of a federation and set a dangerous precedent; the detention and media blackout was undemocratic and unconstitutional.

The Government of India, in a sizzling affidavit, placed on record what exactly had transpired in 1947-48, including Patel’s explosive letters castigating Nehru. Many legal pundits still apprehended that the Su­preme Court may strike down the abroga­tion as unconstitutional. On December 11, 2023, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court of India, headed by Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, unanimously held that Article 370 was temporary and transitory.

OPERATION SINDOOR AND AFTER

As many as 25 men were identified as Hindus and shot dead at pointblank range, mostly in the head, along with a local Mus­lim pony operator who tried to intervene at Pahalgam in J&K on April 22, 2025. The terrorists told thewidows: “Go and tell your Modi what happened here.” Firing celebratory gunshots, they disappeared into the pine forests.

Their celebrations would not last long. For the next fort­night, a War Room was set up under the day-to-day supervision of the Prime Minister, NSA Doval and Lt. General Chauhan, CDS. The Integrated Defence Theatre Commanders, recently created under Modi, swung into action. PoK is a thin strip of land sandwiched between Pakistan and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, illegally occupied by Pakistan after the 1947-48 invasion of Kashmir. The PM, as in each such earlier action, personally studied the images and maps of the twenty-one main terrorist sites operated by Pakistan. None in the War Room would have been surprised had the PM recited by heart for each of the sites, the names, locations, functions and affilia­tions, and the reasons for their selection.

Nine terrorist camps-four in Pakistan and five in PoK were identified including Shawai Nalla in Muzaffarabad, where the Pahalgam terrorists had been trained. Muridke, in Pakistan, was where Ajmal Kasab and David Headley had been trained. Kasab had been hanged for killing many civilians in the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008. Headley alias Dawood was the terrorist mastermind behind those attacks.

In the early morning of May 7, 2025, at seven minutes before 1.00 am, Indian Air Force Rafale fighter jets took off from a base in North Kashmir, under the guise of a training exercise and employing radar blackouts. Last ten days, they had done this re­peatedly, to make to maximize surprise. They would not cross the LoC or the International Border and launch cruise missiles and precision-guided munition like Brah­Mos, Crystal Maze-2, Rampage and SCALP missiles from Indian territory itself.

At 1.05 a.m., Operation Sindoor began. Three IAF Rafale jets released the munitions on site number One, Shawai Nalla, operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose proxy, The Re­sistance Front (TRF), had initially claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. The missiles killed several terrorists who were sleeping. Later, in July 2025, the Modi government would successfully manage to convince the US State Department to clas­sify TRF as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisation’ and ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’. In 23 minutes, before 1.30 a.m., all nine targets were hit, some repeatedly. About 100 terrorists were killed. The PM oversaw in the minutest detail a tri-service military operation to neutralize their operational capa­bility and target terrorist infrastructure. Simultaneously, the PM responded to communications from leaders of countries across the globe, telling them that it was a calibrated response to degrade terrorist infrastructure and show resolve, without a full-scale war.

Three Pakistani Aircraft Hangars at Sukur, Bholari and Jacobabad destroyed including a few F16s in hangers. A surface-to-air missile downed a Pakistan’s AEW&C aircraft. Mis­siles landed very close to Pakistan’s Army Headquarters (GHQ) at Chaklala near Rawalpindi. Pakistani airbases were hit. Neutral defence analysts acknowledged significant structural damage, particularly to Bahawalpur and Muridke camps in Pakistan.

Pakistan may have expected that Indian strikes would be limited to PoK, and not (mainland) Pakistan, and hence, the surprise. India’s signal was that it can, at will, hit any place anywhere in Pakistan or PoK which supports terrorist infra­structure. While it is true that in military campaigns, one cannot count bodies or loss of hardware like planes, the mindless cycle of terrorist attacks, followed by retaliation and counter-retaliation, resulting in the loss of lives of armed forces personnel as well as civilians, disturbs Narendra Modi to the core. As the gory attack in Pahalgam demonstrates, after every ten to fifteen years, a jingoistic General comes to power in Pakistan, like Zia or Musharraf or Munir, who detests India and wants to leave a mark as a national hero in Pakistani history.

(This is an edited excerpt from Modi’s Mission by Berjis Desai)