After the ceasefire, leaders of India and Pakistan seek cover under their flags

Pulled back from the brink by a ceasefire, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan avoided a potentially catastrophic collision, but the tides of nationalism unleashed by the four-day clash are still rising on either side of the border.

Now, leaders of the two nations are seeking to cement a political dividend from the May conflict, with competing claims of victory relayed to domestic audiences attuned to triumphalism whenever the two nations clash.

“The conflict has created a national fervour on both sides,” said Ajay Darshan Behera, professor at the Academy of International Studies at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University.

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now hoping for a bounce in state polls later this year from Operation Sindoor – the military response to a militant attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians on April 22.

India blamed Pakistan for backing the militants, a charge Islamabad has denied.

The BJP has already started campaigning on the basis that its government – helmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – dared to cross a red line, targeting what it says was “terrorist infrastructure” on Pakistani soil.