The most powerful response to Pahalgam wasn’t a missile

medium nocaption120994969It's an image for the ages. At the first government briefing about the precision strikes against Pakistan-based terror hubs, Indians got to see a powerful snapshot of the way of life that Operation Sindoor was launched to protect.It was a tableau of India’s pluralism — two languages, two sexes, two faiths.Flanking Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri were two soldiers, both women, one Muslim and one Hindu — Colonel Sofiya Qureshi of the Indian Army and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force.There were two messages. One, the hate Pakistan’s hired gunmen had tried to foment by killing innocent tourists in Pahalgam after identifying them by their religion will not be able to divide India.Two — unlike Pakistan, India is a progressive, modern nation where women hold leadership positions in every walk of life.A proud family tradition medium120994733For Colonel Qureshi, a life in the forces is a family legacy. Born in 1981 in Vadodara, Gujarat, she comes from a military family — her grandfather served in the Indian Army, as did her father. Her father served the nation in the 1971 war.Colonel Qureshi’s husband, Tajuddin, is an officer in the Army's Mechanised Infantry.“Only women know the importance of ‘sindoor’,” said a proud Hanima, Col Qureshi’s mother. “Even my daughter’s son, who turned 18, is preparing to join the IAF,” said Hanima.“I am proud of my daughter. My family has always followed the principle of ‘Vayam Rashtre Jagrayam (We will keep the nation awake and alive)’. We are Indian first, and then Muslims,” said Taj Mohammed Qureshi, Col Qureshi’s father.“My father’s maternal grandfather also served in the British army and later participated in the 1857 freedom struggle,” one of Col Qureshi’s three brothers, Mohammed Qureshi, told TOI. Col Qureshi also has a sister.“You can say that patriotism runs in our blood. She wanted to become a professor, but has now donned the Indian Army uniform,” said Mohammed Qureshi, who, along with his father, mother and daughter Zara, addressed the media in Vadodara.Col Qureshi earned her BSc in chemistry (1995) and MSc in biochemistry (1997) from MS University, after completing schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Vadodara. She left her PhD program a year short to join the Indian Army.In 2020, the Supreme Court also acknowledged Col Qureshi’s achievements in a landmark judgment granting Permanent Commission to women officers in the army.A girl who grew up to ‘own the skies’ medium120994785Wing Commander Singh is from Lucknow. She’s a helicopter pilot in IAF and the first in her family to enter the armed forces. She’s flown in tough terrains in the Northeast and J&K.Commissioned in the Indian Air Force on December 18, 2004 as part of the 21st Short Service Commission (women), Singh rose to wing commander’s rank in 13 years (in 2017).She received a permanent commission in December 2019. A seasoned helicopter pilot, she specialises in operating the Chetak and Cheetah helicopters and has over 2,500 flying hours. She is married to an IAF pilot.Wg Cdr Singh was just about 12 years old when a classroom discussion rewrote her destiny. “We were having a discussion in the class on the meaning of names,” she said in a 2023 panel discussion. “Somebody shouted, ‘You are Vyomika, which means you own the sky’. Since that day, I have wanted to be a pilot.”“During my final year of engineering, I got to know that women can become pilots by taking a competitive examination for short service commission via UPSC. I cleared the pilot course in the academy, was awarded the wings, and became a helicopter pilot. After that, I never looked back. It was a rollercoaster experience. I’ve flown from sea level to heights of 18,000 feet,” she added.“I have done a lot of casualty evacuation and made decisions of leaving one person and taking another and then coming back the next day while negotiating with the weather,” said Wg Cdr Singh.The sentiment behind Operation Sindoor medium120994890“It was important, I think, for India to convey to an Indian audience and the global audience about why India carried out Operation Sindoor,” says Commodore (retd) C Uday Bhaskar.“I think it was very, very deftly done messaging. If you look at the name of the operation, it's sindoor, which has a certain connotation within the Indian lexicon,” he adds. “It is related to women and has a certain sanctity when it comes to marriage. Many of those killed in Pahalgam have left behind widows.”One of these widows, Himanshi Narwal, whose Naval-officer husband Lieutenant Vinay Narwal had been shot dead during the Pahalgam attack, told PTI, “The female officers can relate to what we are going through, so it was great to see them at the defence briefing.”She added, “In the future, I really hope there is equality in the forces and in every department in India between men and women.”The India, Pakistan contrastThe confident but sober disposition of the Indian women officers would be foreign, even offensive, to many in Pakistan. Deepening radicalisation hasn’t just deprived women and men of autonomy there, it has brought fractiousness even to Pak army ranks. Analysts argue that internal fragmentation and radicalisation have hollowed out Pakistan’s ability to defend not just borders, but its pluralism. In their determined hugging of an imagined past, Pakistanis have kept falling behind forward-looking Indians.Together, the two women sent a message Pakistan has no answer to.