BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, invoked three landmark cross-border operations — the 2016 Surgical Strike, the 2019 Balakot Air Strike, and Operation Sindoor — to argue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twelve years in office have produced a stronger, more modern military and more secure national borders.

Posting under the hashtag #12YearsOfSurakshitBharat ('12 Years of a Secure India'), the Hamirpur MP wrote: 'Sashakt sena, surakshit rashtra' — 'A strong army, a secure nation' — framing the Modi government's defence record as a demonstration of India's power and leadership to the world.

Context

The post marks what the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is commemorating as 12 years of the Modi government, which took office in May 2014. Thakur, a former Union Minister who held the Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports portfolios, has consistently been among the party's most vocal communicators on national security themes.

The three operations cited span a decade of evolving counter-terror doctrine. The September 2016 Surgical Strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) were India's first publicly acknowledged cross-border ground response to terrorism in decades, launched after the Uri attack. The February 2019 Balakot Air Strike by the Indian Air Force targeted a Jaish-e-Mohammed facility in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following the Pulwama attack, establishing a precedent for the use of air power beyond the LoC.

Policy Backdrop

Since 2014, the government has pursued a more kinetic counter-terror posture alongside structural reforms in the Indian Armed Forces, including accelerated indigenisation under the Atmanirbhar Bharat defence production initiative. Discussions around military theatreisation — integrating the Army, Navy, and Air Force under unified theatre commands — have also been a defining reform agenda of this period.

Successive high-profile operations have been publicly highlighted by the ruling party to project deterrence and political resolve, weaving operational outcomes into a broader narrative of institutional transformation within the military establishment.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary stakeholders in this framing are the Indian Armed Forces and border-area populations in states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, and the northeastern frontier. For the BJP, the defence modernisation record is a central political asset heading into any electoral cycle.

Opposition parties have periodically contested the government's characterisation of these operations, particularly regarding casualty claims and strategic outcomes, though the broad public salience of each operation has remained high.

What's Next

Parliamentary scrutiny of the upcoming defence budget is expected to test how far indigenisation targets and capital expenditure commitments have been met over the twelve-year arc Thakur invokes. Any official release of details or after-action assessments related to Operation Sindoor would also add substance to the claims being advanced by BJP leaders in this anniversary campaign. The ruling party's ability to sustain the 'Surakshit Bharat' narrative will depend significantly on how those disclosures unfold in the public domain.