ONE unforeseen consequence of Operation Sindoor has been the battering of Indian navy’s image as a ‘regional policeman’ in Indian Ocean. Celebrated Indian diplomat K.M. Panikkar, a proponent of ‘Indian Ocean being India’s Ocean’, must be shaking in his eternal abode.

At the onset of Operation Sindoor, the Indian navy declared “quantitative and qualitative edge to dominate the maritime front”. INS Vikrant was deployed in the North Arabian Sea on April 23, but it was quickly recalled, with satellite images showing an abrupt withdrawal of the carrier and its arrival at the Indian port of Karwar. This happened in the wake of ever increasing presence and intensifying patrolling by Pakistan Navy that forced the Indians to merely make feeble attempts at salvaging their sinking pride.

For well over three decades, the United States has intimately supported and prepared Indian navy, facilitating its expansion, building operational capacity and honing combat skills.

Besides, as part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Indian navy also operates and interacts with three other advanced navies on a regular basis. All this came to nothing.

In the preface of their influential 2013 work, Arming Without Aiming: India’s Military Modernisation, Stephen Cohen and Sunil Dasgupta had contended that the Indian navy and air force needed to develop a much clearer vision of what they want to do with new weapons and platforms. A dozen years later, the Indian navy was still struggling to have strategic clarity. Far from casting any worthwhile influence on Pakistan’s maritime area of interest, it remained confined to safe sanctuaries. Its veneer of operations was at best a surviving distance of over 400 miles from Pakistan’s coast.

All the three Pakistani ports — Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar — continued uninterrupted operations during actual war. A smart anti-access and area-denial strategy of Pakistan Navy with well-integrated platforms and a net-centric force denied any benefit to the Indian navy. For far too long, the Indian Navy has been a ‘free rider’ using crutches of the US and other navies and looked muscular outwardly. Yet, under the cloak, the inner core has remained hollow and exposed.

Cdr (retd) Muhammad Azam Khan
Lahore

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2025