Tharoor Explains India’s New Military Doctrine in Project Syndicate

In a sharply argued essay for Project Syndicate, a globally respected platform for policy and thought leadership, senior Indian parliamentarian and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor has laid out a detailed analysis of India’s evolving security doctrine in the wake of Operation Sindoor, the recent cross-border military operation targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.

Image Source: Dr. Tharoor on X

Tharoor highlights the unprecedented scope and precision of India’s actions, describing them as “calculated, swift, and targeted”. Despite heightened alerts across Pakistan, Indian forces were able to breach defences, execute night-time strikes to avoid civilian casualties, and neutralize known terrorists, with subsequent funerals attended by Pakistani military and police officials — a signal, he notes, of the success and accuracy of the operation.

The former Minister of State for External Affairs argues that India’s strategic restraint has given way to a new doctrine: one that retains diplomacy as a tool but no longer depends on it as the sole line of defence. He states that military response has become the default instrument against cross-border terrorism, and future provocations will meet with full-scale conventional retaliation.

Tharoor writes that India's posture also refutes the long-standing assumption that Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent prevents retaliation. With multiple past operations — from surgical strikes in 2016 to airstrikes in 2019 and now Operation Sindoor — India has shown that it can respond decisively without triggering escalation to nuclear conflict.

A significant portion of the article addresses the Indus Waters Treaty, which India placed in abeyance prior to the operation. While India has made no move to divert water resources, Tharoor sees this as a geopolitical lever, symbolizing the shift from dialogue-for-peace to demanding cessation of terrorism as a prerequisite for cooperation.

He is blunt in his assessment of Pakistan’s military establishment, which he says uses religious identity as a justification for claims on Kashmir, dismissing it as a myth unsupported by history or legality. According to Tharoor, Kashmir is not the root cause of Indo-Pakistani conflict, but a pretext used to mask ideological and geopolitical motives.

He cautions that India, despite its economic and military advantages, must remain vigilant. He acknowledges that Pakistan’s ties with powers like China and Turkey—and its access to advanced weaponry such as Turkish drones and Chinese missiles—pose real tactical challenges, even if the outcome of any conventional war is not in doubt.

The piece closes on a note of measured realism, with Tharoor urging continued strategic preparedness, internal security upgrades, and public awareness about the cycles of violence that may persist. He praises India’s political will, operational readiness, and restraint, asserting that these attributes will be essential as the country confronts a fragile and unpredictable security environment.