New Delhi, May 8 -- The inevitable kinetic response by India to the Pahalgam carnage was in its limited and selective description symbolically narrated by multi-faith women officers of Army and the Indian Air Force and Kashmiri Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and dressed up appropriately as Operation Sindoor, the codeword chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It came yesterday morning, two weeks after the terrorist attack and was synchronized with mock drills for war damage limitation to the anticipated Pakistan counter strike the next day.

India's retribution was progressively notched up from its earlier responses against terrorist attacks for Uri across Line of Control in 2016, and the unprecedented air strikes in Balakot, Pakistan in...