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UNABLE to come to terms with both its military and narrative failures during and after the May 2025 hostilities with Pakistan, the Indian state continues to flog a dead horse by trying to depict loss as success.
The latest example of this is a new documentary released in India titled Declassified: Operation Sindoor. The film tries to paint the clash as an Indian victory, relying more on revisionism and fantasy than what actually transpired across the battlespace. Pakistan’s military spokesman has termed it a “Bollywood-style” production and a “mutilation of history”.
It should be remembered that the majority of Indian media outlets during the conflict had resorted to high-pitched jingoism, reporting that key cities in Pakistan had been ‘conquered’ and ‘devastated’ by the Indians. It mattered little that these preposterous claims had nothing to do with reality. The new documentary appears to me a more ‘polished’ attempt at regurgitating the same narrative.
Instead of pouring its energies into demonising Pakistan and conjuring up phantom victories, the Indian state would be better off trying to mend fences for a secure future for all of South Asia. Very few outside India’s corridors of power are buying the narrative about an Indian ‘victory’ during last year’s clash, just as there have been few takers for the spurious claim peddled by New Delhi that Pakistan was responsible for the Pahalgam atrocity.
