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“On the first day (of Operation Sindoor), we were completely defeated. In the half-hour air encounter that took place on May 7, we were completely defeated, whether people accept it or not,” Chavan said, addressing reporters at Pune’s Patrika Bhawan, according to news agency ANI.
“Indian planes were shot down. The Air Force was completely grounded and not a single plane took off,” he said.
The Congress leader further claimed that if an aircraft had taken off from Gwalior, Bathinda or Sirsa, “there was a very high possibility of being shot down by Pakistan, which is why the Air Force was completely stopped.”
Chavan also questioned the need for an army consisting of millions of soldiers considering future wars will be fought with drones and missiles, without the need for large-scale army mobilization.
According to ANI, he said, “We saw during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a kilometer of movement of the army… Whatever happened in two or three days was only air war and missile war. In future too, wars will be fought in the same manner.”
“In such a situation, do we really need to maintain an army of 12 lakh soldiers, or can we get (them) to do some other work?” He asked question.
In the early hours of May 7, 2025, India targeted base camps and hideouts of terrorists in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with strategic and measured air strikes.
The air strikes were in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, where three terrorists shot dead 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, located in the Baisaran Valley.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy group of terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Following the air strikes, India had clarified that no Pakistani military sites were targeted and only terror sites were struck, claiming that over 100 terrorists from various organizations including Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were killed.
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Pakistan attacked with drones and missiles, Indian Army retaliated. The clash lasted for more than four days and ended on 10 May when the Pakistan Directorate General of Military Operations (DGMO) urged its counterpart to halt all military actions on both sides of the border.
Congress leader Chavan also questioned why the Indian government decided to stop the military action, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was under pressure from the United States. According to the Free Press Journal, he called the action a failure of India’s foreign policy.