The article misses the point. Modi had a domestic audience to please, yes. But he did something Indians wanted for a long time - to put Pakistan on the backfoot. Yes, Pakistan had a calibrated response the next day but Pak has been remembering Gandhi and Nehru ever since. Everyone would like peace. But Pakistan's bravado in using non state actors against India and thinking India can't respond has vaporized. Even if one buys every Pak argument that only trees were hit and that they shot down 2 jets and India didn't shoot down anything - then too, the point was that India will strike inside Pak if it wants to escalate and is willing to bet the odds in such a scenario. It almost certainly takes out Pakistani non state actors from the India Pak equation for the foreseeable future. And Pak can't attack India with its regular armed forces. That's it.