Lalit Shastri
How frustrated power-brokers and self-styled intellectuals are bending over backwards to delegitimise India’s strategic autonomy
There is a dangerous trend unfolding in our political discourse. Every crony, middleman and wheeler-dealer who flourished for decades within the Congress ecosystem is today gasping for relevance — not because they lack platforms, but because the present dispensation refuses to reward backroom deals and patronage. Deprived of their old sources of power and privilege, these entrenched interests are now lashing out, not merely at the Modi Government, but at the very idea of India as a proud and sovereign nation capable of asserting its own strategic autonomy.
This frustration has now reached a point where many of these so-called influencers are prepared to back even Rahul Gandhi’s anti-India posturing. Worse still, they are willing to echo every foreign narrative that undermines India’s credibility, simply to delegitimise this government. Their objective is no longer constructive opposition, but systematic subversion — and they are present across institutions, media platforms and think-tanks.
Delegitimising India — One Lie at a Time
The recent controversy over the US President Donald Trump’s boastful claims regarding “interference” in Operation Sindoor is a classic case in point. Instead of rejecting the remark outright, several voices from the Congress ecosystem immediately went into overdrive: one group argued that India should “humiliate itself” publicly by acknowledging Trump’s role; another advised Western audiences that Modi’s “Hindutva mindset” prevented him from gracefully admitting Trump’s intervention.
Worse still, former establishment insiders such as Ajay Bisaria and Sanjay Baru chose to write in the Western press that the “practical” route for India would have been to concede that Trump somehow helped bring about peace by convincing India to suspend Operation Sindoor.
This is not diplomacy — this is dangerous appeasement.
When Intellectuals Turn Into Enablers
What these individuals completely ignore is the ground reality: Operation Sindoor was a decisive Indian response, carried out on the basis of Indian strategic evaluation, and suspended on terms determined solely by India. No “foreign pressure” was brought to bear and certainly no favour was done to us. To suggest otherwise is not an act of political analysis — it is an act of betrayal.
Today’s betrayals are seldom about leaking military secrets. They are more often about delegitimising the nation and eroding public confidence — one small lie at a time. That is precisely how the Congress ecosystem operates: spreading doubt, normalising surrender, and glorifying compromise whenever assertiveness is required.
“When former envoys like Ajay Bisaria and advisors like Sanjay Baru ask India to ‘acknowledge’ a fictional American role in Operation Sindoor, they are not promoting diplomacy — they are legitimising servility.”
A Call to Isolate the Anti-India Cabal
Every Indian must recognise that this is not innocent criticism — it is a deliberate attempt to weaken India from within. Those who put partisan hatred above national dignity are not critics, they are collaborators in a larger anti-India project. It is the duty of every thinking citizen to expose and isolate such elements, before their false narratives sink deeper into public consciousness.
India did not bow down under colonial rule. It certainly does not need to bend today before a much discredited US President — or before a cabal of frustrated power-brokers who continue to masquerade as patriots while serving their own vested interests.
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