India, June 2 -- 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 se...