When Silence Screamed Louder Than Intelligence and Action Came After Carnage
In the wake of the grotesque carnage that befell Pahalgam on the 22nd of April, 2025—a grim testament to the malignant reach of transnational terror networks—the Government of India, in an ostentatious display of diplomatic retaliation, unfurled a series of reactionary measures aimed at castigating Pakistan, the alleged incubator of this orchestrated barbarism. The Indian state apparatus, jolted from its habitual inertia, embarked upon a diplomatic offensive, summoning high commissioners, suspending bilateral dialogues, and threatening economic sanctions cloaked under the guise of strategic restraint.
Home Minister Amit Shah’s perfunctory visit to the site, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s truncated foreign sojourn, may have signaled urgency, but such theatre reeked of performative governance—too little, too late. In reality, these machinations, shrouded in bureaucratic bravado, barely mask the resounding hollowness of India's counter-terror intelligence architecture. For a government that touts zero-tolerance towards terrorism as a keystone of its nationalist manifesto, the sheer lapse in preemptive action underscores an alarming dereliction of duty.
Despite possessing a multi-tiered intelligence surveillance network and having previously claimed to have neutralised terror infrastructure in Kashmir post-Article 370 abrogation, the Government's inability to anticipate such a high-profile massacre is not merely a failure—it is an indictment. What transpired in Baisaran Valley is not a lapse in intelligence, but a collapse of vigilance; a bureaucratic torpor that emboldened militants to strike at the very heart of India's tourism-driven soft power in Kashmir.
Further compounding the ignominy is the administration's proclivity to deflect rather than reflect. The belligerent finger-pointing at Pakistan, albeit partially merited, conveniently obfuscates the systemic rot within India's own internal security mechanisms. While Islamabad’s nefarious complicity with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba is a geopolitical reality, it does not absolve New Delhi of its cardinal sin: complacency dressed as confidence.
In sum, while the post-facto steps undertaken—ranging from diplomatic isolation of Pakistan to mobilization of the National Investigation Agency—may satiate a restless public and manufacture an illusion of control, they do not erase the culpability of a government that, despite all its bluster and bravado, failed in its primordial duty: the protection of its people. The Pahalgam incident, thus, is not only a tragedy—it is a seismic revelation of institutional lethargy masquerading as national resilience.