The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday slammed senior Congress and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for his remarks on the Indian Air Force and Operation Sindoor, saying that the Congress party "hates Indian armed forces".
Chavan had earlier in the day sparked a massive controversy, claiming that the nation was "completely defeated" on the first day of Operation Sindoor. He also claimed that the "Air Force was completely grounded, and not a single aircraft flew".
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed Chavan's "shocking controversial statements" and said, "Congress hates Indian Armed Forces. Sena ka apman is Congress ki pehchan (Insulting the army is Congress's identity)," he posted on X.
Further, Chavan had also questioned the need to maintain large military forces, saying that wars would be fought in the air.
{{/usCountry}}Further, Chavan had also questioned the need to maintain large military forces, saying that wars would be fought in the air.
{{/usCountry}}"Recently, we saw during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a one-kilometre movement of the military. Whatever happened over two or three days was only an aerial war and missile warfare. In the future, too, wars will be fought in the same way. In such a situation, do we really need to maintain an army of 12 lakh soldiers, or can we make they do some other work?" he was quoted as saying news agency ANI.
The claims surrounding Indian fighter jets being shot down during Operation Sindoor began doing the rounds after a Defence Attache's statement. However, India refuted reports regarding a presentation made by the attache at a seminar in Indonesia, saying that the remarks were "taken out of context" and are "misrepresenting the intention and thrust" of the presentation.
On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 people dead. The Indian armed forces had targeted terror infrastructure belonging to outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
During the operation, India killed more than 100 terrorists.
Amid reports of India's fighter jets being downed during Operation Sindoor that surfaced just a week after the action, Indian military officers held a press conference, where Air Marshal AK Bharti did not confirm or deny the claims, stating instead that "losses are a part of any combat scenario".
"We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it. Question is have we achieved our objective? Answer is a thumping yes. As for details, at this time I would not like to comment on that as we are still in combat and give advantage to adversary. All our pilots are back home," the Air Marshal said.
Earlier in October, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh reiterated that the Indian armed forces downed five Pakistani jets during Operation Sindoor in May.
The IAF chief reportedly said that India downed five Pakistan fighter jets of F-16 and JF-17 class.
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said that India struck several airfields and installations in Pakistan, rendering a huge blow to its radars, command and control centres, hangars and runways. “We have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft...and at least 4 to 5 fighter aircraft, most likely F-16, because that place happened to be F-16 with whatever was under maintenance at that time,” he added.
“We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about more than 300 km, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class this is what our system tells us,” the IAF chief was further quoted as saying by news agency ANI.