Myanmar operation: Modi had once slammed Shinde for making secrets open, can he back his words now?

When the UPA was in power, Narendra Modi, who was then the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, had once criticised the then Union home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, for saying in the media that India will bring Dawood Ibrahim back from Pakistan. She said the government lacked maturity and shouldn't have spoken on such a sensitive in the open. He gave the example of the Americans, asking whether they had spoken to Osama bin Laden or the media before nailing him on the soil of Pakistan. [Myanmar hot pursuit: 3 developments India must watch out for]

Modi was right in pointing out Shinde's error than

Modi was right in pointing out the error. True, statecraft has its secrets that can't be revealed, not even in the best of democracies. But has his government abided by the same principle when the Indian Army went after the militants following an ambush that killed 20 personnel in uniform?

But is his own government practising what he had preached then?

What was the need for Modi's ministers to target Pakistan after the army operation in the northeast when a number of questions about the operation itself have remained unanswered still?

Was the operation really so adventurous as the Indian media has been claiming? Details about the operation have not come out in official capacity so far and even the Myanmarese authorities have denied the fact that Indian soldiers had indeed entered its territory for the operation.

Why allow noisy publicity about some covert military operation?

If India and Myanmar worked really closely to take on the militants as they have done in the past like during Operation Golden Bird or like the one in 2006, then it should have been done silently and away from the India's noisy media. For bragging about this operation is going to pose two major problems to New Delhi.

It will make the militants aware about future plans of army

First: It will make the militants aware about India's pattern of retaliation and will be more careful next time such actions are planned. The blunder is no less grave than the live coverage of the anti-terror operation during 26/11, something which had made India's media a subject of ridicule.

It could jeopardise India's relation with Myanmar

Second: It could jeopardise India's relation with Myanmar. For the latter might see New Delhi not a reliable ally in the fight against terror, given its media's hunger for sensationalism. If Naypidaw refuses to accommodate India's interests when militant disturbance breaks out again in future, keeping in mind what just happened, India's foreign policy will suffer the most.

Indian Army just can't walk into Pakistan, even if there are no nuclear weapons

The headline-friendly words against Pakistan also do not count for much in reality. Whether there is a nuclear deterrence or not, chances of Indian Army entering Pakistan to demolish the anti-India camps are next to nil. International politics is a complicated affair and over-simplified dreams don't succeed there. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's comment was not required when there is no engagement with Islamabad.

Modi's minister created discomfort among his colleagues in govt

The Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting even caused discomfort among his colleagues in the government by uttering that the Indian forces entered Myanmar for a covert strike. They said Rathore's remark was avoidable for it caused much inconvenience to the Myanmar authorities ahead of the October elections. If the strike was covert, what was the necessity in making it overt by the minister?

PM Modi needs to practice what he had preached when the UPA was in power. Foreign policy can't really be served with media headlines and careless statements.