evidence: What is at stake? [...] But that all changed on Feb. 14, when a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 40 paramilitary officers. In response, Modi launched an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Pakistan, setting off the most serious military confrontation between the two countries in decades. Ever since, Modi has sought to make national security the primary issue of the campaign, engaging in increasingly strident rhetoric that presents his opponents as undermining the country’s safety. [...] Nasty. There was no shortage of insults and low blows in what turned into a bruising contest, even by recent Indian standards.