In recent reflection, the article revisits the memory of when Pakistan claimed to have shot down seven Indian jets — a moment when public pride surged as if justice had been served.
The author argues that the anger fueling that reaction wasn’t rooted in spontaneous hatred, but in a long-standing sense of being threatened and mocked by India — and in that moment, Pakistan felt it had struck back.
Turning attention to the present, the piece mentions the Dassault Rafale and HAL Tejas jets: high-profile Indian platforms whose recent incidents, losses or crashes prompt a broader debate about how Pakistan perceives its own posture and regional dynamics.
It also hints at how narratives of defeat or victory in aerial warfare aren’t just about aircraft or pilots — they’re deeply tied to national identity, pride, and how the two neighbours view each other’s military prestige.
In that sense, the article uses the Rafale-Tejas lens not merely to tally losses, but to explore what “us” means — what Pakistan has assumed about itself, what stories it tells internally, and how India’s hardware and reputation feed into that.