The 2002 drought in South Asia was during a strong El Niño that are known to be strongly coupled. However, contemporary operational models—both dynamical and statistical— that are capable of simulating the effects of El Niño-drought coupling failed to predict the monsoon rainfall deficit that year. This failure highlights a critical gap in understanding the processes involved in predicting extreme droughts. Observations indicate that the 2002 drought was also marked by extremely high interannual mineral dust aerosol loading. This study investigates the complex role aerosols could have played on the drought. We utilized observational datasets, reanalysis products, satellite observations, outputs from the Aerosols and Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project (AerChemMIP-CMIP6), and conducted coupled simulations from the IITM Earth System Model to investigate the physical mechanisms influenced by varying sea surface temperatures and aerosol loading. Results indicate mix of dust and anthropogenic aerosols could indeed be an important factor in reducing rains over the Indian monsoon region. The mechanism for this reduced rains is the dynamical weakening of the land-atmosphere coupling under high aerosol conditions.