In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, the Indian government’s decision to dispatch seven high-profile delegations across the world should have been a moment of diplomatic resolve. Instead, it reeks of desperation. This move, cloaked in the language of counterterrorism and unity, has exposed the delegation diplomacy crisis at the heart of India’s foreign policy.
What’s being sold as international outreach is nothing more than a public relations circus, choreographed to distract from an embarrassing strategic retreat and the crumbling credibility of India’s global posture. At the heart of this failure lies S. Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister, whose tenure has steadily hollowed out the Ministry of External Affairs into a ministry of external appearances.
The delegations are a smokescreen; a frantic attempt to mask India’s glaring geopolitical defeat at the hands of Pakistan’s military, led by the astute and assertive Field Marshal Asim Munir. The brutal reality is that Operation Sindoor, once hyped by the Indian government as a show of strength, ended not in triumph but in humiliation. Pakistan’s armed forces, galvanized under the coherent leadership of Asim Munir and his service chiefs, mounted a massive and calculated retaliation. This response sent shockwaves through Indian defense circles, prompting New Delhi to quietly seek Washington’s help in brokering a ceasefire – a humiliating act that has undercut any pretense of regional dominance that the Modi administration claims.
This act of backchannel begging, facilitated by US intermediaries, has left India exposed. It is no longer the assertive power it postures to be but a state scrambling for damage control. The very idea that India, supposedly a rising power, would turn to external powers to negotiate a ceasefire with Pakistan—a country it routinely dismisses—lays bare the hollowness of its strategic posture and further deepens the ongoing delegation diplomacy crisis that has undermined India’s global credibility.
Rather than confronting these geopolitical setbacks with honest diplomacy or institutional recalibration, the Modi government has opted for spectacle. The seven delegations announced are not diplomatic tools; they are theatrical performances. These groups are filled with politically convenient faces BJP loyalists, token minorities, co-opted opposition members, and retired diplomats all paraded in a futile bid to project unity and deflect scrutiny. Their true mandate is not engagement but damage control. They are not empowered to negotiate, nor are they equipped with any policy expertise. Their presence abroad is meant to distract, not to deliver.
This move also exposes Jaishankar’s growing irrelevance. Once touted as a technocratic asset to Indian diplomacy, he has been reduced to a glorified spokesperson, recycling talking points and evading accountability. His absence from direct crisis diplomacy after the Pahalgam attack speaks volumes. At a time when India needed a steady diplomatic hand, Jaishankar receded into silence, ceding the foreign policy arena to the Prime Minister’s domestic spin machine.
Sindoor Fallout: Diplomacy or Defeat?
The dysfunction in India’s diplomacy is not new. In fact, this debacle is just the latest in a long string of strategic miscalculations and blunders, especially vis-à-vis Pakistan. Consider India’s ill-fated 2016 “surgical strikes,” which were followed by exaggerated claims and zero long-term strategic gains. Or the 2019 Balakot airstrikes, another performative episode that failed to deliver any lasting deterrence and invited a fierce counterattack, including the downing of an Indian fighter jet and the capture of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. These events were celebrated domestically but left India diplomatically isolated, with few countries willing to endorse its unilateral aggression.
Then there’s the 2020 fiasco at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), where India pushed hard to blacklist Pakistan. Despite massive lobbying, Pakistan escaped the blacklist, and India’s campaign collapsed without support from key global players—another instance of diplomatic overreach followed by strategic recoil.
The Kashmir move in 2019, stripping Article 370, was another misstep with global implications. Rather than isolate Pakistan, India found itself the subject of critical debates in international forums. From the U.N. to European Parliaments, India was forced into defensive mode. The Gulf nations, previously silent partners, voiced concerns. Even traditional allies like the United States began issuing veiled criticisms over human rights and religious freedom in India.
Now, facing mounting pressure and growing global skepticism, India has resorted to tokenism. Including one Muslim and one Sikh in every delegation is not diversity its faith-washing. It is a transparent attempt to whitewash rising international scrutiny over religious persecution under Modi’s rule. These symbolic inclusions are not about engagement but about optics: an effort to manufacture an image of tolerance that the facts do not support.
The message these delegations send to the world is clear: India’s foreign policy is no longer directed by strategic vision but by domestic political compulsions. Parliament is sidelined. Institutions are muted. Real diplomacy has been replaced with propaganda roadshows. In the vacuum left by Jaishankar’s disengagement, Modi’s PR machine has taken over foreign policy repackaging defeats as drama, and crises as opportunities for photo ops.
Meanwhile, countries like China are expanding their diplomatic reach, mediating peace deals, brokering trade, and asserting themselves as credible strategic players. Pakistan, under Filed Marshal Asim Munir’s stewardship, has not only neutralized Indian aggression but has begun reclaiming narrative space in global diplomacy.
India’s choice to send out symbolic delegations instead of serious diplomats reflects more than just strategic miscalculation; it signals a regime in retreat. A regime more concerned with headlines than with hard power. More concerned with narrative control than territorial control. And more invested in theatricality than in tactical clarity.
Legacy of Missteps: India’s Failing Pakistan Strategy
Delegation diplomacy crisis is deeper than a single misstep. It is systemic. Jaishankar’s tenure, once seen as technocratic and promising, has descended into irrelevance. Modi’s dominance over foreign policy has reduced diplomacy to domestic spectacle. And India’s stature as a serious global actor has been sacrificed at the altar of political optics.
If New Delhi wants to reclaim any strategic credibility, it must begin by dismantling the ongoing delegation diplomacy crisis and restoring seriousness to the Ministry of External Affairs. Until then, India remains not a global power in ascendancy, but a state adrift—loud in rhetoric, weak in resolve, and embarrassingly outmaneuvered by the very adversary it claims to dominate.
