Adding 'spine' to Pakistan policy: How political cartoons depicted Indian Army's surgical strikes

Thursday was a very important day for India. It was when the central government made public the details of the surgical strike conducted by the Indian Army against the terror launch pads across the Line of Control. With the Modi government facing a lot of pressure from both, Opposition parties and the people to give an appropriate response to the Uri terror attack, this strike also had huge political implications.

After a long time, major political parties came together and were on the same page with the Narendra Modi government. The nation witnessed an united political fraternity in India which supported the central government and the Army for a successful strike.

Sometimes, the best way to understand an event or an issue is through political cartoons, which often say more than a thousand words, especially on an event as important as this.

Here are some of the most wittiest political cartoons on India’s surgical strikes:

#cartoon @timesofindia #SaluteToIndianArmy #SurgicalStrike pic.twitter.com/O03iKVeu9p

— Sandeep Adhwaryu 🇮🇳 (@CartoonistSan) September 30, 2016

This brilliant cartoon by Sandeep Adhwaryu, chief cartoonist of The Times of India, summarises what most of the people in India feel has happened with the surgical strikes. After the ‘surgical operation’, the central government and the Indian Army have finally managed put to some ‘spine’ back into India’s foreign policy on Pakistan.

Surgical strike! #cartoon #SurgicalStrike #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/WfR9eyTtrt

— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) September 29, 2016

This cartoon by Satish Acharya is significant because it perfectly exposes Pakistan’s contradictory stand on the surgical strikes. While Pakistan denies that the surgical strike ever took place, it still says that it will take revenge for the attack. Pakistan has always maintained that India just engaged in “cross-border firing” and called it a surgical strike.

#IndiaStrikesBack #IndiaGivesItBack ... Pakistan had it coming. pic.twitter.com/8s48Llr7Nc

— Neelabh (@NeelabhToons) September 29, 2016

This rather flamboyant cartoon by Neelabh Banerjee clearly suggests that the intention of Pakistan to harm India with the Uri terror attack came back to haunt Pakistan itself. India has alleged that Pakistani-sponsored terrorism was responsible for the Uri terror attack.

Cartoonscape, September 30, 2016 https://t.co/lP3vOXrG79

— The Hindu (@the_hindu) September 29, 2016

The Hindu published a simple yet powerful cartoon in its newspaper (link provided in the tweet) which shows the PM walking into the ‘surgical theatre’ looking like a passivist with what looks like a paunch and then walking out with the paunch gone and ‘56-inch chest’ back.

#SurgicalStrike #modipunishpakistan My #cartoon pic.twitter.com/vIU4L5SIVt

— MANJUL (@MANJULtoons) September 30, 2016

Cartoonist Manjul perfectly captures the massive rise in the popularity of the central government which the surgical strikes must have caused because now, every ‘common man’ wants to have a 56-inch chest. Also, brownie points for atply depicting the DGMO’s press conference on Thursday which made public the information about the surgical strikes.