For the first time, the Pakistanis who had been playing mad on nukes felt that they were now up against someone who was actually and genuinely crazy. It scared the hell out of them and they felt they had no choice except to demonstrate their nuclear capability to restore deterrence. Later, when Vajpayee made a cryptic remark while addressing a public rally in Punjab that if Pakistan thought India would wait for them to use nuclear weapons before retaliating, it caused a lot of consternation. But Vajpayee had already lost the plot when he reached out to Nawaz Sharif and started the bus diplomacy. His strict directions to the Armed Forces to not violate the LoC during the Kargil conflict because of the nuclear factor convinced the Pakistanis that Vajpayee was no different from his predecessors. And when in 2002, despite ordering a mobilisation of forces following the attack on Parliament, Vajpayee did not opt for the war option, the Pakistanis knew that he had accepted and conceded to their deterrence.