Repetitive aggressive behavior and exercise of power that is intentional and involves an imbalance of Power to dominate or harm another individual is a practice referred to as ‘bullying’. After India became the fifth largest economy, it bought 4.5 generation air crafts, an advanced Missile Defense system, and created a successful entertainment industry, wanted to practice ‘bullying’ in the region claiming power dominance.
This superficial supremacy has been successfully humbled by a comparatively much smaller state Pakistan. The new normal India wanted to establish as a hegemon after the Pahalgam incident is now reversed and a new deterrence has been created. Pakistan has now proven that it is head and shoulder above India not only in its kinetic and non-kinetic military domain but also in diplomatic arenas.
In 2019, after Indian Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistan Prime Minister Narendra Demodardas Modi stated in a speech stressing the importance of Rafale aircraft saying, “the outcomes of this (incident) would have been different if Abhinandan was in Rafale aircraft” According to Reuters report by Shivam Patel, Indian Defence Minister stated a deal to buy 26 Rafale aircraft with France worth 630 Billion Rupees.
In addition, According to the report of The Defense Post by Christine Castimiro, in 2018 India equipped its defense system with S-400 in a deal of 5.4 Billion dollars with Russia. All of these military upgrades created a bubble of being undefeatable around the Indian Elite. This bubble burst in 2025 when India accused Pakistan of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and responded with a missile attack on 6 different Places inside Pakistan.
In the counter-attack Pakistan used Chinese-made Chengdu J10 jets and according to the report of CNN World French officials confirmed Pakistan downed the Rafale jet in another report of CNN by Nectar Gan this development increased shares of Chinese Chengdu aircraft up to 40%. Despite India having the best missile defense system S-400 Pakistan effectively targeted Indian air bases. As per the report of Nick Robertson, Pakistan responded with relentless, massive barrage of missiles and rockets in Indian military facilities, airbases, and weapon storage inside India.
Moreover, Pakistan conducted multiple cyber-attacks on India as a part of Operation Bunyan-al-Marsoos. In line with the Ministry of Information and Broadcast Pakistan, Pakistan has carried out successful cyber-attacks on India targeting the official website of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Crime Research Investigation agency, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Bharat Earth Movers Limited along with this, sensitive information from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was also leaked. This shows Pakistan’s clear Military dominance over both kinetic and non-kinetic arenas.
Accompanied by the military defeat India has experienced diplomatic isolation. The narrative of India was not bought by the international society. United Nations Security Council and other stakeholders condemned terror attacks of Pahalgam but none of them accused Pakistan. On the other hand, after the cease-fire, American President Donald Trump stressed talking about the Kashmir issue which India had buried long ago. This is a huge diplomatic setback for India.
While, Pakistan was publicly supported by China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Azerbaijan. In an interview with Crux on 28th April 2025, Chinese Professor Victor Gao clearly stated, “China and Pakistan are all-weather iron-clad allies, no one should second guess this alliance between China and Pakistan, China will always come to Pakistan’s help and assistance whenever Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will be threatened by any country”.
Besides this, the Turkish Naval Ship TCG BUYUKADA visited Karachi port as a goodwill visit. This reflects the deep-rooted mutual trust and strategic partnership between two brotherly nations. In addition to this, the Modi regime tried to exert external pressure on Pakistan by creating hurdles in the way of a new International Monetary Fund bailout which was unproductive as Pakistan managed to acquire $1bn (£765m) of bailout package. This is indeed a strong diplomatic setback for India.
India is a high riparian state and has used this geographical benefit to show its dominance over Pakistan. The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) was signed between both states in 1960. Delhi suspended IWT neglecting article 12 clause 3 of the treaty that states, the treaty can only be terminated through mutual consent. Pakistan has clearly stated that the “diverting of IWT would be considered as an act of war”. In the same vein, President of World Bank Ajay Banga in an interview with Indian Broadcaster CNBC-TV18 stated, “There is no provision in the treaty to allow to be suspended”. This can be seen as another defeat on the diplomatic field.
I would also like to discuss here, the spread of fake news by Indian media during the course of military engagement between two nuclear-equipped countries. This irresponsible behavior of the Indian news channel is now seen as a comedy circus. As per the report of Statista presented in October 2023, India is most vulnerable to misinformation among 34 risk countries.
This volume of misinformation and jingoistic journalism is a concern worldwide. According to multiple international reports during the recent military engagement, India was senselessly spreading fake news without weighing the consequences. Measures should be taken worldwide to sensor this xenophobic media as this is lethal for the entire globe.
India presumed itself as a regional power and started to practice regional bullying and dreamed of establishing a new normal in the region. This miscalculation was countered by Pakistan not just in kinetic but also in non-kinetic diplomatic arenas and created a new power projection.
