Pahalgam vs Pulwama: 8 slides that show how BJP has hollowed out the political discourse with its cliches and bromides

And why India may strike Pakistan on May 4

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In a landmark essay he wrote in 1946, Bihar’s most famous literary product George Orwell bemoaned the decline of the English language.

Cliches, claptrap, and the careless use of words, Orwell wrote in Politics and the English language, obscured truth and manipulated thought, enabling oppression and deceit.

Something approximating to that is in evidence as Narendra Modi and the BJP-RSS go through the usual motions of preparing the ground for India’s response to the massacre of 28 tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir, on 22 April 2025.

Without providing any evidence whatsoever, and just by the deft use of language, Pakistan has been convicted in the eyes of Indians who, in any case, require no proof given that they outsourced their thinking to WhatsApp a while back.

But, wait.

This isn’t about that.

This is about language.

What is striking (and disturbing) about the words and phrases the Indian government is deploying vis-a-vis Pahalgam in 2025 is no different from the words and phrases it deployed vis-a-vis Pulwama in 2019, when 37 personnel of CRPF had been ambushed.

Nearly every statement, every action, every allegation, every claim India is making today has deja vu written all over it.

It’s lights, camera, and action replay, in a manner of speaking.

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When an official spokesman says the armed forces have been given “complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing of our response” in 2025, guess what?

In 2019, Modi said the security forces have been given “full freedom” to choose a “time and place” for the “future course of action. Which they did just in time for the general elections.

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When water resources minister C.R. Paatil--now renamed Jal Shakti minister to help Hindi Medium Types (HMT)--says “we will ensure that not even a drop of water from Indus goes to Pakistan”, guess what?

In 2019, the then water resources minister Nitin Gadkari had said the government had decided to “stop” the waters in the three “eastern rivers” of the Indus basin from flowing into Pakistan.

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When Narendra Modi skips an all-party meeting and goes to Madhubani in Orwell country to say that “India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers” and “we will pursue them to the ends of earth,” , guess what?

In 2019, Modi had said much the same thing in Begusarai and Hazaribag in Orwell country: “The fire raging in the hearts of my countrymen is my heart too”, and that he would avenge every tear that had been shed by the families of the slain CRPF men.

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When foreign secretary Vikram Misri says “cross-border linkages of the terrorist attack” in Pahalgam had been brought out in the meeting of the cabinet committee on security, do note that in 2019, then finance minister Arun Jaitley had said there was “incontrovertible evidence” of Pakistan’s direct involvement Pulwama.

Then as now, no proof has been adduced.

When defence minister Rajnath Singh says “there will be strong response” to the Pahalgam attack, please note that the self same Rajnath Singh had promised a “strong reply” to the Pulwama attack too.

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When the Opposition leaders across political lines pledge “unconditional support” to the government on whatever actions it may take against the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack andvits backers, cut to 2019, when these leaders in “one voice” had condemned terrorism in “all forms” and said they were one with the government.

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When BJP spokesman Nalin Kohli slams Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra for saying non-Muslims were attacked in Pahalgam because Muslims were being ill-treated under Narendra Modi, remember Ravi Shankar Prasad said exactly the same thing about the Congress in 2019.

And so on and so forth: a torrent of been there, done that.

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By photocopying its 2019 playbook for 2025, by labelling people and shutting out debate, by paving the way for a response on its terms, BJP has proven George Orwell right in a roundabout sort of way:

“The decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes…. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely.”

One final comparison and a crazy speculation.👇🏾

In 2019, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat termed the day of India’s strike on Balakot in response to the Pulwama attack as the “true teravi shradh” for the CRPF men.

It was the 13th day after February 14.

Considering that Bhagwat has just met Narendra Modi to discuss Pahalgam, is it unreasonable to speculate that India’s response could come on the morning of Saturday, May 4?

After all, it is the 13th day after April 22.

And, after all, all but one victim was a Hindu.

Then again, if the cloud cover is thick on any other morning before that…..

Screenshots: courtesy The Indian Express