Operation Sindoor: 'Victory Is In The Mind', Army Chief General Dwivedi Explains How Narrative Shapes Outcomes In Modern Warfare

Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi stressed that “victory is in the mind” while describing Pakistan’s narrative management during Operation Sindoor, which convinced its citizens they had prevailed in the recent conflict, NDTV reported.

He told a gathering at IIT Madras that such influence extends to domestic, adversary, and neutral audiences.

"Narrative management system is something which we realise in a big way because victory is in mind. It's always in the mind. If you ask a Pakistani whether you lost or won, he'd say, my chief has become field marshal, we must have won only, that's why he has become field marshal," said the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

The Indian forces responded with social media and other outreach, launching the message “justice done” as their first strategic statement.

"Strategic messaging was very important, and that's why the first messaging that we did was, justice done. That hit the maximum, I am told, in the world today, the number of hits which we received," he said.

The strategic messaging was "simple" but travelled worldwide, the COAS underlined, pointing to the press conferences held by two women officers of the Indian Army and Indian Air Force.

"The logo which you see all over the world was created by a Lieutenant Colonel and an NCO. We prepared all this. When we were going in for these kinds of operations, we were also going for these things (strategic messaging) because the narrative management system is important. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort," said the Army chief.

Addressing IIT-M faculty and students, Gen Dwivedi said Operation Sindoor marked a doctrinal change, likening it to chess where the opponent’s next move remains unpredictable.

"In Operation Sindoor, we played chess. We did not know what the enemy's next move was going to be, and what we were going to do. This is called the grey zone. Grey zone means that we are not going for the conventional operations. What we are doing is just short of a conventional operation. We were making the chess moves, and he (enemy) was also making the chess moves. Somewhere, we were giving them the checkmate and somewhere we were going in for the kill at the risk of losing our own, but that's (what) life is all about," the COAS told the gathering.

Gen Dwivedi credited political will for enabling operational freedom, recalling Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s 23 April meeting with service chiefs, where he declared, “Enough is enough.”

"All three chiefs were very clear that something had to be done. A free hand was given: "You decide what is to be done". That is the kind of confidence, political direction, and political clarity we saw for the first time. That is what raises your morale. That is how it helped our army commanders-in-chief to be on the ground and act as per their wisdom," he said.

The operation was launched in response to the 22 April Pahalgam massacre, in which Pakistan-linked terrorists killed 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir, marking the deadliest attack in decades.

Amid national outrage, Indian forces struck nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

On 7 May, airstrikes killed over 100 terrorists at these camps.

Last month, during Operation Mahadev, security forces eliminated three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack.

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