Sonal Shukla

Foreign policy analyst | Columnist | Vlogger | Lawyer

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

My piece on Indian foreign policy.
https://t.co/7oGd3mygnc

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@odsevisonca I was also stuck at Innsbruck but surprised to see nobody has reported abt the incident in the news in Austria

[Amrullah Saleh @AmrullahSaleh2]

Operation Sindoor vs. Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos

Some of the firsts

One :
Realizing the stalemated status or irrelevance of the UNSC, India didn’t seek to request sympathy from the five of the 1945. Operation Sindoor clearly demonstrated a strong sense of self-confidence and real strategic autonomy and sovereignty.

Two:
For the first time, India shredded the notion that terrorists are separate from terrorist backers and thus targeted both. The notion that certain powerful rogue officers of Pakistani State authorize terrorist attacks was also shredded. This is a new paradigm. Another type of deniability must be invented.

Third:
There was a battle going and a war being planned. In the midst of the battle, Pakistan negotiated for a loan from the IMF, which surprisingly approved it. It matters because most likely Pakistan isn’t fit enough to finance a war but has capabilities to engage in battles. A war can't be won with IMF loans anyway.

Fourth:
The strategic patience and cultural restraint have a limit. That limit was tested on April 22 by the Lashkar Teyba terrorists. Perhaps they wanted what followed. They didn’t benefit from their adventure though. Perhaps they wanted to humiliate India publicly. They seem to be mentally stuck in 2008.

Fifth:
Size matters. Every inch of Pakistan was under reach. I always thought the Nur Khan airbase was the best defended base of Pakistan. It isn’t. The grarrison town of Rawilpindi as the heart of Pakistan’s military and its best-known airbase was hit.

Sixth:
Pakistan lost the monopoly over Islamic Fatwa. The Indian ulema presented a fatwa of their own to their own government. Thus, the religious dimension always exploited by Pakistan to earn sympathy from the Muslim Ummah evaporated. Deoband is located in India by the way.

Seventh:
Keeping secrets in a democratic society is next to impossible, but very little leaked out of India, which shows enormous skills in adhering to principles of operational silence and public unity to assist in safeguarding of secrets.

Note: I have seen very little or no visuals from Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos to comment on. Seemingly, it never took off the way it was propagated. The ceasefire saved Pakistan’s skin. Pakistan military leadership has made statements and claims over their own achievements, but the Indian skies remained open, flights weren’t cancelled, and I haven’t seen visuals of missiles landing in Delhi or Amritsar.

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@HinaRKhar FM of a terrorist state!

[Geert Wilders @geertwilderspvv]

President Putin meets Vice President Trump.

[Tanvi Madan @tanvi_madan]

Perhaps the most striking thing to me in this article is that officials are talking about this issue (albeit anonymously).

[can think of a few possible reasons]
https://t.co/apWfsxfxCR

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@KanwalSibal He means something else, not in general sense, but more like in strategic sense.

[Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal]

Bitterly anti-Russian Polish origin Brzezinsky long advocated Ukraine’s separation from Russia to cut off Russia from Europe. Posed with a rifle on Khyber pass. Organised jihad against Russia in Afg & left behind this terrible legacy in our region. Archetypal Cold Warrior.

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

My piece on China's debt trap.
https://t.co/yh4Z2ahm2T

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@Chellaney Because Ranil Wickremsinghe is Rajpaksha's puppet, he will naturally do Chinese bidding, it is an Indian failure that they haven't been able to gain the leverage despite $4 billion help.

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@Chellaney What option does India have?

[Amb Rajiv Dogra @AmbRajivDogra]

Ukraine had been wooing the US in anticipation of war with Russia.
@mideastXmidwest writes; last year its lobbyists made over 10,000 contacts with Congress, think tanks, and journalists;

https://t.co/pQ1cg0x7no

[Mohandas Pai @TVMohandasPai]

You are such a big hypocrite! Did you support the FOE of Nupur? You may not agree like many do not, but her life is threatened and you keep quiet Ok stand for principles not this selective politics @ShashiTharoor

[jim rose circus @jimrosecircus1]

Look what they found in India. It took over 60 years to carve by hand. Started around 200 BC. It had been buried for over 1000 years. Now it has shown up on your screen in less than a second.

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

In case you missed this: "Pope Francis has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was 'perhaps somehow provoked' as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned NATO was 'barking at the gates of Russia'." https://t.co/Ilvujc4a66

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

Dr. Fauci, known for his flip-flops during the pandemic and refusal to come clean on the U.S. government funding of the Wuhan lab, tests positive for Covid. In a 2011 coauthored op-ed, he argued "much good can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory."

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

India can't be allowed to be mired into violent protests - my views over the problem & solution.

#NupurSharama
#ProphetMuhammad
https://t.co/dJb2Us1PjK

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

@pbhushan1 Full marks for hate speech and incitement of violence. Why don't you file a case in Court against this? Are you a lawyer or twitter warrior?

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

However, I find it preposterous that Islamic monarchies -- that have accepted Islam as state religion against secularism, and have no politicians and no democracy -- are lecturing a secular democracy like India about coexistence and respect fr all religions.
#ProphetMuhammad 2/2

[Sonal Shukla @Policyworker]

While I don't think it's proper for any politician to speak anything that causes shame to the people of any religious community, what might or might not be written in their religious texts.

#ProphetMuhammad
#NupurSharma

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