Nerves of Steel

Vikram Misri, India’s Foreign Secretary, did not pound the lectern nor did he reach for jingoistic soundbites. Instead, he dismissed Pakistan’s wild accusations with quiet derision - “ludicrous”, “frivolous”, “a deranged fantasy” (in his latest press conference). His words often cut sharper than missiles.

It was Misri’s unfazed tone, precise, firm and utterly devoid of triumphalism, that has stood out during the briefings, his voice full of clipped restraint amid the thunder of missiles and misinformation.

“We have defended and reacted in a responsible and measured fashion,” he said during a daily briefing post-Sindoor, brushing aside Pakistan’s theatrics with a diplomat’s scalpel.

Misri’s words matter. He represents not just the Indian government’s formal voice abroad but also its inner logic which has been a mixture of resolve and restraint.

His career has tracked some of the most volatile turns in South Asia’s post-Cold War geopolitics. And now, as India faces a Pakistan seemingly more willing to provoke and less able to calculate the costs, Misri is the man chosen to give India’s response both gravitas and coherence.

Born in Srinagar in 1964, Misri grew up in the shadow of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. After schooling in Gwalior and a degree in history from Delhi University’s Hindu College, he completed an MBA at XLRI, Jamshedpur, briefly working in advertising before finding his calling in diplomacy.

His talent for quiet efficiency earned him the trust of three prime ministers - I.K. Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. In a system where proximity to power often breeds notoriety or missteps, Misri instead built a reputation for being unflappable, discreet and clinically well-briefed.

Internationally, his career reads like a checklist of strategic flashpoints. He was Deputy High Commissioner in Sri Lanka during tense times, Ambassador to Spain and later to Myanmar, and finally India’s envoy in Beijing during one of the chilliest periods in Sino-Indian relations (2019–2021), which included the bloody Galwan clash. As Deputy National Security Adviser from 2022 to mid-2024, he handled strategic affairs at a time when India’s foreign posture was hardening under pressure from both China and Pakistan.

When Pakistan, reeling under Operation Sindoor, turned its ire towards Indian cities and temples with missiles and accusations, Misri dubbed Pakistan’s attempts to divide India among communal lines a “deranged fantasy that only the Pakistani state can come up with.” That acidulous turn of phrase, wrapped in officialese, was vintage Misri.

His calm presence has helped New Delhi project an image of maturity even as its armed forces hit back hard. The bombing of eight Pakistani military sites in retaliation for cross-border attacks marked one of the most audacious Indian operations in recent years. Yet Misri’s message was not of aggression, but of inevitability.

Behind the scenes, Misri has been deeply involved in shaping India’s diplomatic push to highlight Pakistan’s double game to the world which is courting bailouts from the IMF while subsidising terror groups. As a son of Kashmir, Misri knows well that real national security lies not in chest-thumping but in clarity. Today, India is a country that walks the knife-edge between strategic patience and assertive posture. In Vikram Misri, it has found a custodian of both.