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Mind the Gap: Sindoor and its aftermath
How many military operations can you name? Most will remember Operation Blue Star, when Indira Gandhi ordered troops into the Golden Temple in 1984
How many military operations can you name? Most will remember Operation Blue Star, when Indira Gandhi ordered troops into the Golden Temple in 1984, some might have heard of Operation Vijay that led to the incorporation of Goa, Daman and Diu into India in 1961. There’s the chummy Operation Maitri which delivered humanitarian aid to Nepal in 2015.
There is no ambiguity about Operation Sindoor, the name reportedly chosen personally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that refers to the red vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women, to avenge the killing of their husbands by terrorists in Pahalgam.
In choosing the name, the prime minister, who has consistently sought to project himself as a champion of nari shakti, was seeking to put women at the heart of India’s retaliation against terror camps located within Pakistan.
Not everyone got the memo.
Op Sindoor did not protect Himanshi Narwal whose photograph seated beside the body of her husband, Navy Lieutenant Vinay Narwal on April 22 became emblematic of the tragedy. But, days later when she publicly denounced hatred and appealed for peace, she came under severe troll attack.
Commentators like Frontline editor Vaishna Roy who tweeted her criticism of the name, Operation Sindoor for its “patriarchy, ownership of women, ‘honour’ killings, chastity” and so on also came under troll attack.
Then there were those like BJP member of Parliament Ram Chander Jangra who castigated the women who lost their loved ones for failing to show fighting spirit. Other motormouth BJP leaders such as Vijay Shah, a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government questioned the credentials of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, one of two women army spokeswomen, as a ‘sister’ of terrorists. Following a Supreme Court-ordered investigation into his atrocious statement, Shah quickly clarified that his words were a “linguistic mistake”.
At an NDA meeting, Modi cautioned leaders from speaking out of turn.
Yet, even the government’s stated concern for women citizens did not prevent it from including BJP member of Parliament M.J. Akbar in its outreach delegation. Accused of sexual harassment by at least 20 women journalists, including one who said he had raped her, Akbar stepped down as minister of state for external affairs in 2018 and has subsequently lost a defamation suit he filed against one of his detractors. That case is now in appeal at the Delhi high court. In a statement, the Network of Women in Media said: “his presence in the delegation undermines the values India seeks to project abroad.”
