There is a bombardment of all kinds of forwarded messages on WhatsApp—fake and real. While many forwards may be dismissed as downright silly, there are some that leave a deep impact on you. While meandering around a plethora of WhatsApp messages, I came across a post that haunted me: “War is where young people who don’t know each other and don’t hate each other but kill each other, by the decision of old people who know each other and hate each other but don’t kill each other.”
However, I doubt if the recent India-Pakistan conflict fits into the above definition of war. The seeds of the current conflict were sown when Pakistan-sponsored terrorists mercilessly killed innocent tourists in Pahalgam on April 22. The dastardly act of terror sent a wave of anger and anguish across the country. Electronic and social media went ballistic with inflammatory rhetoric, putting pressure on the government to react immediately and decisively. However, the government chose to act in a calibrated manner, launching ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7. Terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan was struck at nine different locations. What started as a ‘measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible’ action against terrorist bases escalated into a warlike situation with retaliatory drone attacks by Pakistan.
While our men and women in uniform made us proud by countering every attack and making decisive counter-attacks, the so-called nationalist social media warriors were busy intensifying war rhetoric through messages full of bravado and jingoism. In the midst of the conflict, when drone attacks were successfully thwarted by our robust air defence system, I was appalled by a boastful forwarded message on WhatsApp that described the decimation of enemy drones by Indian missiles as a ‘spectacle’ for enjoyment. How can we equate war with entertainment?
War is not a movie to enjoy or a spectacle to watch and applaud. Army personnel are not actors performing on a film set. They are people in flesh and blood; someone’s loved ones, someone’s ‘sindoor’. However, it would be wrong to limit the image of army personnel only to men, for women, too, serve in the armed forces on the call of duty. Contrary to what many may visualize war as a video game, where you remain safe while hitting targets and killing the enemy, real war has serious consequences. There are losses and casualties, death and destruction on both sides. War may be inevitable in certain situations, but there is nothing glamorous about it. War leaves permanent scars that are difficult to erase.
All along, I had been praying for the conflict to end, but when it actually concluded on May 10, it came as a bolt from the blue. I had my afternoon nap rather late that day , as I was glued to television watching war updates until about a quarter to five. As soon as I got up at around 5:30 in the evening, I reached for my mobile to check WhatsApp. The first message I found was Trump’s tweet announcing the ceasefire. Yes, it was on WhatsApp that I learned about the suspension of hostilities. My first reaction was one of disbelief. Given the credibility of WhatsApp messages, I was not sure of its authenticity. I texted, ‘Fake or real?’ Without waiting for a reply, I immediately switched on the television and got the confirmation.
We should have been heaving a sigh of relief that the conflict didn’t escalate into a full-blown, prolonged war, which would have cost dearly in terms of men and material. However, a sort of discontent began to unfold on social media. Thanks to unreasonable expectations stoked by disinformation, the army of social media warriors turned their ire towards Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who, along with Col. Sofia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, was the face of media briefings during Op Sindoor. He was subjected to vicious trolling by the army of warmongers on social media.
The cessation of conflict should have been welcomed by everyone, but it was not. As I was trying to figure out the reaction to the ceasefire, a WhatsApp forward gave me much clarity on the issue: “The enthusiasm of most people for war is directly proportional to the distance of their homes from the borders.” How true! Those living on the border under constant threat of shelling will never support war. However, I would like to add that not just physical, but emotional distance also matters. If your loved ones are in the armed forces on the front, you pray for peace and not war.
(Published in ALIVE magazine by Delhi press in June 2025)
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I agree more than 100%with every word that you have written. Yes INDIA had all the right to self defense and that is why OPRETION SINDOOR was launched very meticulously and with aim to destroy terrorists and their basic establishments /infrastructure. It was stragicaly very well thought of attack carried out with precision causing hardly any damage to civilian population and for that we all need to applaud our Government and Armed forces in one vote and the outstaing success of our forces should make all of us proud irrespective of our elegance to any party, cast or religion but you are right Rama the war mongers and trolling groups do not let that happen .There certainly should be some policy to check and balance the nonsense being done through social media on the pretext free speech. Individual freedom is welcome but not on cost of National interest.
Thanks dear Neelam . Grateful to you for always being the first one to give your insight.
It is an apolitical article , neither to do with the narrative of the ruling party nor with the tirade of the opposition. It is my thought processes how it evolved during the course of the recent conflict .
Rama the longivity, intensity, target selection, effect on international relations, reactions from the countries with no interest and from countries with direct or indirect interest all together is the deciding factor. The factors mentioned above are also related to effet on the post operative strategies which the country would face in assorted fora. The financial effect vis a vis the length of operation as also the exposure of the country’s defensive capability all are borne in mind in such operations. Trump may for all the reason could have tested the warm water for he was keen on Nobel prize and his own asset was damaged.
Grateful to you Narinder for giving your expert comment.
I am quite naive in technical matters, though I understand the critical deciding factors in a war . I have written this article purely from a perspective of a common citizen.