India utd, all for one, one for all

There is something deeply reassuring - empowering, actually - to find a country united as one. And, by united, one doesn't mean in some abstract, nebulous way in front of the tricolour on one of the national days. Even before Thursday's all-party meeting in which opposition parties were briefed on ' Operation Sindoor', India's parliamentary parties across the political spectrum had, without prompting or conditions, aired their full support of GoI's and the armed forces' handling of India's calibrated, outcome-specific response to the Pahalgam terrorist attacks.

Rajnath Singh summed up this unified state when he said that 'we don't indulge in politics just to form a government, but we do it to build a country'. That remarkable cohesion has been on display since April 22.

When a strident opposition leader like AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi stated last Sunday, 'Whatever action the government takes, we are with them,' one can be sure that politics can cut through the usual 'tu-tu, mein-mein' chase and put up a unified front when the nation is under threat.

An ardent critic of the government - and the prime minister - Mamata Banerjee's post on X, 'Jai Hind! Jai India!' on the day India conducted airstrikes, tells its own spirited message. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's statement that his party 'has categorically stood with the armed forces and the government to take any decisive action against cross-border terror' tells us that this is no politically motivated homily, but a genuine, ardent call to stand behind those in charge of protecting the state against a common adversary.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. They also put aside their political, ideological, even personal differences, to ensure that such timely toughness is maximised by unflinching support across India's long political table.