Operation Sindoor was far from a conventional military campaign, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi said.
likening it to a tense game of chess where neither side knew the other’s next move. Yet, India secured a decisive “checkmate” against Pakistan, he added, criticising Islamabad’s attempts to spin the conflict in its favour through narrative management.
Speaking at IIT Madras, Gen. Dwivedi explained that the mission unfolded in a greyzone — a space just short of conventional war — where each side made calculated moves to outmanoeuvre the other. “Somewhere we were giving them the checkmate and somewhere going in for the kill at the risk of losing our own, but that’s what life is all about,” he said.
He took aim at Pakistan’s effort to project itself as the winner, citing its move to promote Army chief Asim Munir to Field Marshal. “Narrative management is powerful because victory is in the mind. If you ask a Pakistani whether they lost or won, they’ll say, ‘Our Army chief has become Field Marshal, so we must have won,’” Gen. Dwivedi remarked.
Launched on May 7 after the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 26 civilians were killed by Pakistan-based militants, Operation Sindoor was backed by firm political resolve. In a high-level meeting on April 23, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reportedly told the service chiefs, “enough is enough,” granting them a free hand to decide the response. “That kind of confidence and clarity from the political leadership was something we saw for the first time,” Dwivedi said.
The operation involved precision air and missile strikes on nine terrorist targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, dismantling key infrastructure while keeping the action measured and non-escalatory. Pakistan’s retaliatory drone and missile attacks were intercepted by India’s air defence systems.
The Army chief said the naming of the mission — Operation Sindoor — played a key role in rallying the public. “It connected the whole nation… people kept asking why we stopped. That question has now been answered,” he noted.
Analysts view Operation Sindoor as both a military and psychological win for India, showcasing its ability to carry out high-precision, coordinated strikes that degrade terrorist capabilities and reinforce deterrence against state-sponsored cross-border attacks.
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