Rabia Akhtar
@Rabs_AA
When a leading analyst like Ashley Tellis argues that India’s Pakistan obsession is self-defeating and strategically incoherent, it’s worth paying attention. His Foreign Affairs piece lays bare how New Delhi’s fixation on outmaneuvering Pakistan continues to undercut India’s ability to confront its real challenge: China.

Modi’s government is only the latest in a line of Indian leaderships that have struggled with this. As Tellis points out, India’s strategic autonomy mantra and its reluctance to align squarely with the United States has long been framed as a multipolar ideal. Yet this posture has delivered neither security nor the great-power status India seeks.

If India has not managed a fundamental shift despite two decades of deepening U.S. ties, what exactly would it take for such a redirection to happen? Until then, India remains caught in a cycle of balancing illusions, unable to transcend its own Pakistan complex and unwilling to fully anchor its future in a coherent grand strategy.

https://x.com/Rabs_AA/status/1939684438503264528

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Will the Modi government’s policies and beliefs thwart India’s international ambitions?

https://www.youtube.com/live/pnev9iJ3LZI

India believes it could be a rival of China in 25 year’s time. But is that likely? India wants to be a superpower by 2050. But is that a realistic ambition? In other words, is Viksit Bharat achievable? Ashley Tellis, The Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes India’s economic performance, its foreign affairs strategies and the authoritarian and illiberal practices of the Modi government could thwart India’s proud ambitions. That’s the message of his recent essay in Foreign Affairs magazine. But what are his reasons for coming to this conclusion?

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India’s Great-Power Delusions
How New Delhi’s Grand Strategy Thwarts Its Grand Ambitions
Ashley J. Tellis

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/india/indias-great-power-delusions

Since the turn of the century, the United States has sought to help India rise as a great power.


In military terms, it is the most significant conventional power in South Asia, but here, too, its advantages over its local rival are not enormous: in fighting in May, Pakistan used Chinese-supplied defense systems to shoot down Indian aircraft. With China on one side and an adversarial Pakistan on the other, India must always fear the prospect of an unpalatable two-front war. Meanwhile, at home, the country is shedding one of its main sources of strength—its liberal democracy—by embracing Hindu nationalism. This evolution could undermine India’s rise by intensifying communal tensions and exacerbating problems with its neighbors, forcing it to redirect security resources inward to the detriment of outward power projection. The country’s illiberal pivot further undermines the rules-based international order that has served it so well.

Tejasswi Prakash
@Tiju0Prakash
"Pakistan was in the front, with China providing all possible support...Turkey also played a key role. During DGMO-level talks, Pakistan had live updates of our key vectors from China,"

Deputy Chief of the Indian Army

Our Army is now compelled to publicly speak about its defence requirements, as the current political leadership seems too preoccupied with photo ops and optics to pay any real attention to national security.
#OperationSindoor

https://x.com/Tiju0Prakash/status/1941079746781094292

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The STRATCOM Bureau
@OSPSF
India’s Deputy Army Chief, Lieutenant General Rahul Singh shocked by Pakistan’s ISR reach into India.

He says that during DGMO deescalation talks Pakistan had live tracking of Indian assets preparing to launch missions, which would be responded to immediately if not called back:

https://x.com/OSPSF/status/1941088112702316951

Indian General Making Excuses for Losing to Pakistan

By AK Chishti

You know who keeps justifying losses again and again? Losers. Just like the Indian Deputy Chief’s briefing more about calming their own people than facing reality. Pakistan didn’t just hit hard, we hit their morale. #OperationSindoor tunrns Tandoor!

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Syed Talat Hussain
@TalatHussain12
His stutters and stammers aside, what he is telling you is a) how I'll-prepared India was b) how bad was their war strategy c) how poorly they anticipated the adversary's capabilities d) how vulnerable their various flanks were in the combat zone. In so many poorly-strung sentences, he is saying: we were roasted.

https://x.com/TalatHussain12/status/1941185551127777530

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FJ
@Natsecjeff
"We were not fighting one adversary but three: Pakistan, China and Turkey"

Based on that logic, Pakistan could argue the same with India using weapons platforms from France, Israel and Russia.

https://x.com/Natsecjeff/status/1941141295080362318

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Rabia Akhtar
@Rabs_AA
Imagine fearing an adversary so much, you convince yourself it wasn’t them but their friends that beat you. When a military starts believing that its adversary’s strength lies solely in foreign support, it stops preparing for the adversary itself. And underestimating an opponent by outsourcing their strength to others may soothe national ego but it is a dangerous way to lose the next war.

Lt Gen Rahul Singh’s statement is less a reflection of battlefield realities and more a projection of post-crisis insecurities. Yes, Pakistan absorbed hits and we took some damage. But what matters is what happened next. When the dust settled in May 2025, it wasn’t China or Turkey that forced India into DGMO-level talks, it was Pakistan’s calibrated, multi-domain response that exposed critical vulnerabilities in Indian assumptions.

The narrative that Pakistan acted as a 'front' and China 'tested weapons' is a convenient deflection from India’s own overreach and intelligence lapses. If 81% of Pakistani hardware is Chinese, then perhaps it's time to ask why India’s Israeli, American, Russian, and French-supplied systems still failed to prevent deep penetration strikes, drone swarms, and jamming of critical vectors.

Referring to Pakistan as a ‘live lab’ for Chinese weapons not only demeans Pakistan’s sovereign military capabilities, but also undermines India’s own credibility as a serious power if it believes its adversary's strength depends entirely on another's support.

If China is gaining operational feedback, that is a separate strategic reality. But the core issue remains: India initiated escalation, misread the deterrence ladder, and now wants to outsource blame. If anything, the May 2025 crisis exposed that imported hardware is no substitute for indigenous competence, India’s underperformance made that abundantly clear.

Next time, before India imagines hitting population centers, it might want to review the wreckage of May 2025, both literal and reputational. Strategic miscalculation is more an Indian mindset problem than a technology gap.

https://x.com/Rabs_AA/status/1941199617099444292