With that sort of Congress response it wasn’t hard for the BJP and the Modi-Shah duo to brand the Congress and Rahul Gandhi “anti-national” and “Pakistan lover”. Congress leaders like Navjot Singh Sidhu, with their reckless statements, only managed to push the narrative that the Congress would rather give Pakistan, every now and then, a cross-border terror strike in India to keep domestic audiences satisfied and terror fanatics in high spirits.

But with a nationalist party at the helm, Congress calculations went awry. If we take into the loop the belief that Modi had calculated midway into his tenure that he will be needing a new slogan to catch the imagination of the electorate, foreseeing that the previous one ‘Acche Din Aayenge’ was pure bunkum, then it gets clear the surgical-strikes post-Uri were the first indication. The Congress should have taken note and become wise to what was coming: ‘Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai’ and ‘Majboot Sarkar Na Ki Majboor Sarkar’.

The Balakote air-strikes and the Abhinandan capture-and-release helped Modi cement his larger than life image of a strong and tough leader who will never bow to Pakistan’s “blackmail” and the Congress reacted just as Modi’s playbook expected: With denials and questions; speaking Imran Khan’s language and allowing Navjot Singh Sidhu to go ahead and “make fun of the Indian Air Force.” At the time the Congress was warned of “falling into Modi’s trap” but those warnings went in waste.

And Modi made “national security” his election plank. Everything playing according to a script. From killing the aides and advisors of the Pulwama suicide bomber to Modi and not the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces – the President of India – inaugurating the National War Memorial, no missteps at all. And the Congress just blundered on, blindfolded, not ready to acknowledge that Modi had successfully scripted for himself a very potent election plank to fight General Elections 2019.

And, now, when the election is winding into its final phases, the Congress turns around and lists its surgical strikes, more or less acknowledging that ‘national security’ is the election issue. Rahul Gandhi stated this by saying that the “army is not the personal property of Narendra Modiji like he thinks” and that the UPA government had conducted as many as “six surgical strikes during its tenure.” To which Modi said the Congress is playing video-wargames.

Rahul Gandhi said the Congress “does not politicize the army” but in the aspirational first-time voter’s mind that was what the Congress created when Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit was allowed to get away with calling the army chief “Sadak Ka Gunda” as also Sanjay Nirupam’s intemperate anti-Army statements. If now Rahul Gandhi has to backtrack and squirm then it is thanks to such Congress leaders and his own reluctance to order them to shut the f… up.

Narendra Modi had right from his first weeks in office given indication that a tough stance against Pakistan would be his refrain throughout his tenure. His choice of Ajit Doval for NSA to “giving a free hand”, to the army first and then the air force, clear signs of what he was planning and building up to. Ditto the “muscular Kashmir policy”. Every time the coffins landed in Delhi, Modi was on hand to take a circumambulation as the television cameras lingered on him.

Appears like the Congress got it rather late. Modi had, soon after the Balakote air-strikes, asked first-time voters to “dedicate” their votes to Balakote. The question is, “Have they so far, and will they do so going ahead to May 19?” Only May 23 will tell! (IPA Service)