Lull after surgical strike, as govt, party refrain from chest-thumping

A day after the strikes across the Line of Control, it was business as usual at Raisina Hill. A calm-looking Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a 20-minute speech in which he narrated anecdotes and made suggestions on cleanliness, waste management and building toilets, but was silent on the surgical strikes carried out just a little over 24 hours earlier.
The message—action needs no words—was palpable and had percolated to his council of ministers and the BJP.

The leadership has conveyed to the ministers and the party that they should exercise restraint from making chest-thumping statements about the strikes. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and BJP president Amit Shah are understood to have asked the party leaders on Thursday evening to speak cautiously, at a time when the government wanted to avoid further escalating tension. There was concern about sleeper cells becoming active and possible retaliation, sources said.

Besides, any extreme reaction from the government or party leaders could raise expectations of the people, sources said. The surgical strikes have completed Modi's cycle of offensive strategy which began with isolating Pakistan at the global stage, moving to the economic steps by reviewing the Indus water treaty and then seeking to review the MFN status.

Only the Army and its operational wing have been authorised to speak to media, according to sources, at the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting on Thursday itself, DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, was asked to address the media and not any minister. Sources said, the PM has drawn up a strategy to be adopted, where the operations get the backing of all the people, irrespective of political affiliations.

Modi did not want it to be confined to a party affair or raise tensions to a point that invited international attention. The Army and the ministers were told that it was a limited counter-terrorist operation and that an impression should not be created that India has launched a war. The Prime Minister, however, asked Home minister Rajnath Singh to speak to chief ministers of the border states and Jaitley to brief international fund managers to reassure them about India's fiscal situation and tell them not to worry about FDI and investments in India. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will brief envoys of select countries. He was also told to brief foreign media stationed in Delhi.

In an advisory, the home ministry has conveyed to the states that additional forces should be deployed in all sensitive places, strategic installations, markets, religious places and other key places to ensure security, the sources said keeping in mind the upcoming festive season.
The BJP, which was basking in the government's "befitting reply" to the Uri attack, on Friday refrained from flaunting the strikes. On the other hand, the Opposition came out in support of it.

Modi had called up former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Deve Gowda, while foreign minister Sushma Swaraj drove down to 10, Janpath, to brief Congress President Sonia Gandhi. She was greeted by Manmohan Singh, who had gone there to receive Swaraj. Sonia, who is recovering from illness after she collapsed during her road show in Varanasi on August 2, congratulated the External Affairs Minister and the government for sending a "strong message" to Islamabad that terror would not be tolerated.

At a road show in Bulandshahr on Friday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said "I want to thank him that in the past two-and-a-half years, this is the first action which can be termed as worthy of prime minister."