Shehbaz Sharif's interaction with Pakistani troops is viewed as a blatant attempt to emulate that of his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the way he is trying to deliver a message to the world.
While India’s military prowess was reinforced during PM Modi’s visit to the Punjab airbase, the Pakistani establishment utterly failed not just in optics but also went to expose its flaws, its canards and the extent of devastation that it endured during India's ‘Operation Sindoor’.
As India pummeled and pounced its multiple airbases on May 10 morning, in response to its escalation, Pakistan resorted to a barrage of lies, claiming that it downed Indian jets, destroyed its airbases and also captured an air force personnel. All those claims were outrightly rejected by India.
Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s visit to the airbase in Punjab, yesterday, shredded its web of lies and demolished all its claims.
PM Modi went to Adampur airbase, one of the forward locations, which Pakistan said it had been destroyed in its air raids, and greeted the soldiers amidst the backdrop of India's renowned air defence system and also fighter jets, but Pakistan PM's meeting with their soldiers was done in an empty place, lined with some tanks and aircrafts stationed at a remote place.
The photos posted by PMOs of the two countries explicitly demonstrate the vast difference in which the Prime Ministers met their individual soldiers.
It explicitly indicates how Pakistan experienced wholesale devastation and even how its airbases and airstrips faced mass damage during Indian bombing. The Pakistani PM's engagement with soldiers in an abandoned field only strengthens this.
The Pakistan PMO posted photos of Shehbaz Sharif with soldiers but none of any airstrip or runaway, thus confirming that its airfields got badly damaged in Indian strikes. The only prominent photo was of Shehbaz Sharif standing on an Army tank and speaking to the soldiers.
Sharif's encounter with Pakistani jawans has also been ridiculed and taunted by several social media users, who labeled it as a copycat meet and the one imitating the Indian way of praising its braves but totally failing to do so.
In stark contrast to this, PM Modi’s visit to Adampur airbase was high on symbolism as well as messaging, about how the nation and the Indian Air Force command stand firm and resolute in wake of the barrage of drone and missile attacks.
PM Modi’s pictures with the soldiers, with S-400 defence systems and MiG29 in the backdrop, right next to the airfield, said it all. Also, he landed at the airstrip in a Hercules aircraft, thus proving that there was no damage to the Adampur airbase.
All this goes to expose Pakistan’s theatrics and bombastic rhetoric despite being cut to size by the Indian military in the May 10 strikes.
This was well reflected in PM Modi’s rousing speech at the airbase, where he said that when our soldiers chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, the enemy trembles with fear.
He also saluted the braves for teaching Pakistan a lesson and also thundered, ‘ghar mein ghus ke maarenge’.
Interestingly, Indian troops causing heavy damage to Pakistani airfields has also been reported internationally, with two American dailies – The New York Times and The Washington Post – stating that India gained evident advantage over Pakistan during 'Operation Sindoor'.
--IANS