In an address that electrified the historic ramparts of Gwalior's Scindia School during its 128th Foundation Day celebrations on Monday, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan delivered a resounding verdict on Operation Sindoor—the audacious May 2025 military campaign that saw Indian forces unleash precision missile and airstrikes on nine terror hubs deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Triggered by the horrific April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 civilian lives in a brutal assault targeting non-Muslim tourists, the four-day conflict from May 7-10 exposed Pakistan's nuclear saber-rattling as hollow bravado. "Pakistan thought it could do anything with nuclear capability, but Operation Sindoor proved it wrong," General Chauhan asserted, crediting the operation with dismantling militant infrastructure of groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in sites from Bahawalpur to Muzaffarabad, without a single civilian casualty on the Indian side.

The CDS, addressing an audience of wide-eyed students, alumni, and dignitaries including Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, painted Operation Sindoor as a paradigm shift in modern warfare. "It created a new matrix of decision and timing in warfare," he declared, highlighting how the blitzkrieg integrated air defense, electronic warfare, and drone swarms in a tri-service symphony—the first such joint operation since 1971. No longer can Pakistan peddle the toxic cocktail of "talks and terrorism," Chauhan emphasized, as India now enforces a zero-tolerance stance, even against veiled nuclear threats. The strikes, which Pakistan claimed killed 31 civilians but India confirmed neutralized 80-100 terrorists, triggered frantic retaliation under Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos, yet ended in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that left Islamabad's airspaces shuttered and its runways cratered, per satellite imagery from global observers.

General Chauhan's message extended beyond the battlefield, underscoring that victory is a national symphony, not a solo by the armed forces. "No war is fought by the armed forces alone; the whole nation fights it. Leaders, diplomats, and soldiers know their roles," he said, nodding to the seamless coordination that turned potential escalation into a decisive deterrent. He wove in a lighter triumph: India's thrashing of Pakistan in the September 2025 Asia Cup cricket final, dubbing it "Operation Sindoor on the games field" where the outcome mirrored the military rout—total domination. As the armed forces stand vigil 24/7 with cutting-edge tech, Chauhan urged the youth to embrace "Amrit Kaal" and fuel Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, reminding them of India's ancient gifts like zero and the decimal system that birthed global innovation.

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Union Minister Scindia, an alumnus whose Maratha lineage traces back to empire-builder Mahadji Scindia, amplified the patriotic fervor, hailing the school's legacy of instilling discipline since 1897 under the visionary Madhav Maharaj. "Operation Sindoor was not just an operation, but a message of courage—a symbol of India's culture and values," he proclaimed, praising the tech-driven teamwork under Chauhan's leadership that obliterated enemy bases flawlessly. Scindia evoked the Maratha ethos of Hindavi Swaraj, crediting modern artillery innovations to his ancestor's legacy, and affirmed that the army's uniform ensures 1.4 billion Indians slumber in peace. "A nation becomes great through vision and values," he added, positioning the students as the vanguard of this unbreakable spirit.

The event's emotional peak came with the Madhav Award bestowed upon Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, a 1989 IFS batch stalwart and Scindia School alumnus from the 1977-1981 era, who alongside military briefers like Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh kept the nation informed during the tense May showdown. "The four years I spent here shaped my career. This award is dedicated to all my teachers and friends who moulded my life," Misri reflected, crediting the institution for forging his resilience against global challenges. As the CDS wrapped up with a clarion call—"The future belongs to India, and we, the 140 crore people, can achieve this together"—the gathering rose in applause, a microcosm of a resurgent nation shedding colonial shackles, as Modi often implores, to claim its destined era of strength, security, and supremacy.

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