Why the India-Pakistan ceasefire is giving Modi supporters heartburn

“Yaachna nahi, ab rann hoga,” the Bharatiya Janata Party posted on its official X profile on May 9 alongside a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed in an air force jumpsuit. “It is time for war, not appeals.”

The BJP invoked lines from a famous Hindi poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, as India and Pakistan appeared to be headed for a full-scale war. On May 7, India had launched missile strikes on alleged terrorist infrastructure within Pakistan, as a response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 persons.

However, a little over 24 hours after the BJP’s post on X, American officials claimed to have brokered a ceasefire between the two countries, bringing the hostilities to an abrupt halt.

While many citizens, especially those living in the border states, expressed relief at the end of military action that has claimed over 20 civilian lives, the Hindu right wing reacted with disappointment and anger.

Hindutva activists, pro-government media personalities and even BJP leaders took to social media to express their dismay at what they interpreted as a surrender by India from a position of might.

“It feels a bit anticlimactic to quit when you are clearly ahead,” Shefali Vaidya, a prominent supporter of the party, wrote on X. But she...

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