The forces did an amazing job even with their hands tied. Kudos to them for all of this. They are the real heroes. We should always keep them in our thought and prayers.
A few opinions:
1. Dear leaderji chickened out from a broader conflict. We as defence jingos are okay with a broader fight, but sad to say that the political and bureaucratic leadership just have no apetite for this.
2. I think leaderji wanted to show taking a tough stance and leave it at that. They didn't expect this to pan out into a broader conflict. It was the foolishness from the Porkis and our armed forces given a free hand that got us the successes.
Think the leaders got scared and toned it down as they were not confident of the fallout. Questions such as what if it goes nuclear? What if US puts sanctions? What if we lose industries? What happens to our kids? etc.
That's why the restraints later, repeated offer of off-ramps, the control on information flow, no proper updates etc.
3. Also with an eye to the next election. Seem tough but actually not an apetite for 'ar ya paar ki larai'. Just do enough to have a strongman image and positive public sentiment to move to the next election.
AND continue building economy since leaders think that is the barometer by which they are measured in an election. So not lose the industries coming to India for example.
4. However, perhaps good to not have started this if we are still not ready for an 'ar par ki larai'. A surgical strike would do just fine. Unnecessary loss of more lives.
For this kind of a conflict, you need to have real GUTS and a real PLAN in place to take it to a logical conclusion.
I don't see that thresholds have changed, maybe I am wrong on this. We STILL SEEM under a nuclear threshold umbrella. Also, de facto war after terrorist attack? We already had an attack where tangos fired on a sentry after ceasefire. What really counts as a terrorist attack then? When we have casualties?
Finally, perhaps good to groom the next gen of leaders in BJP, like Yogi who can be more gutsy, have no overhang from the past, and be decisive.
Over and out.