Gen Anil Chauhan Admitted Indian Jets Downed In Op Sindoor, Congress Says Defence Minister Should Have Informed Parties About Losses First
New Delhi : Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan’s remarks on Operation Sindoor in Singapore, where he acknowledged India’s military losses, merit serious study and warrant a broader political discussion, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday. General Chauhan, who was in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue, admitted in an interview with Bloomberg for the first time that an unspecified number of Indian fighter jets were downed during the recent hostilities with Pakistan.
Echoing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Ramesh reiterated the party’s demand for a comprehensive review of India’s defence preparedness by an independent expert committee, similar to the Kargil Review Committee. “Why did we have to wait for statements from Singapore? We are supposed to be the mother of democracy. He stressed that the Defence Minister should have conveyed these details during the all-party meetings held after Operation Sindoor.
“It would have been better if what Gen Chauhan has now said was instead conveyed by the Defence Minister during the two all-party meetings he chaired. The information shared by Gen Chauhan should have been presented to opposition leaders, and a special session of Parliament should have been convened,” Ramesh said. The Congress leader pointed out that just three days after the Kargil war ended in July 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had set up a Kargil Review Committee, noting that the father of current External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was one of the four members who prepared the report.
“All we asked was for the Prime Minister to chair an all-party meeting and convene a session of Parliament. The revelations made by Gen Chauhan yesterday in Singapore make our demand even more relevant now. The outcome of such a session should be a resolution that reiterates the February 22, 1994 resolution on POK, while also incorporating new elements,” Ramesh said. During India’s Operation Sindoor, which was launched after the Pahalgam attacks, Pakistan had claimed that it had downed six Indian fighter jets, a claim India had previously downplayed.
