If America can launch military strikes in Pakistan, why can't India?

But the fact of the matter is that even a more moderate leader than Modi would not have been able to ignore the desire of the Indian public to draw blood in the face of Pakistan’s repeated provocations. Over 72 percent Indians now view Pakistan unfavorably — 64 percent of them very unfavorably — a 10-point increase over the last five years, according to Pew Research.

In light of this, the model of America’s operation against Osama-bin-Laden — daring, precise, effective — was hard for Indian leaders to resist. Indeed, to do so given that America used it to such good effect against a similar adversary residing in the same country would have been an admission of impotence.

This is not mere speculation. Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, not generally known as a fire-breathing nationalist, has explicitly invoked the parallel. He insists that, like the United States, India has the capacity to eliminate terrorist masterminds without taking major casualties on its own side. “This (a U.S.-style operation) used to be only a imagination, a wish, a frustration and disappointment,” he maintains. “But it’s possible today.”