Terrorism is an address, it's Pakistan

In his distillation of India's response to Pakistan's role in the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid down non-negotiables on Monday. He broke it down simply, cogently, firmly: 'Terror and talk can't happen together. Terror and trade can't happen together.' He could well have added, terror and Pakistan can't exist together. The new matrix in these otherwise established non-negotiables was, however, articulated towards the end of Modi's almost half-hour address: 'If there is talk, it will be about terrorism. If there is talk, it will be about Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, POK.' By that elaboration, he aired New Delhi's well-reasoned conflation of terrorism, Pakistan, and POK, underlining that Pakistan itself was the 'address' for terrorism and that meant undehyphenating all three. The horse of Pakistan has been, at last, placed before the cart of terrorism.

After running through a brief of 'Operation Sindoor' and its success, Modi's emphasis that all roads of terrorism - whether 9/11, 2005 London bombings, 26/11, Pahalgam, and other innumerable attacks across the world - lead to Pakistan's doorstep was unambiguous. This sourcing of a scourge, with state sponsors carrying out their trade with impunity - and external assistance - for decades, is important in its articulation. Modi's clear warning to the Rawalpindi clique and its sponsors was buttressed with an assurance to the people of India - doubling as a cautionary message to the Pakistani military-terror complex - that 'in the coming days, we will test Pakistan's actions to see their attitude'.

Taking the battle against terror to its source (read: Pakistan) can mean multiple things to multiple people. For New Delhi, it means being brutally level-headed and outcome-obsessed. India has done well not to fall for the bombast of other players, Pakistan included. With Modi clearly undehyphenating terrorism from its address, how terror will be weeded out - and it will have to be in a multipronged way - will decide India's dealings with Pakistan in the days to come.