Singapore: It is not important whether our jets were downed or not. What is important is that we were able to rectify the tactical mistakes made and fly all our jets after two days, India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan told Bloomberg TV on Saturday, during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
While rubbishing Pakistan’s claims of downing Indian fighter jets as ‘absolutely incorrect’, the General said: “What is important is not the jets being down, but why they were down, and what mistakes were made. Those are important.”
“Numbers are not important,” he added.
“The good part is that we were able to understand the tactical mistakes that we made, remedy them, rectify them, and then implement our plans by flying all our jets and targeting at long range again after two days,” the CDS said.
Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif reiterated on Wednesday that his country’s air force shot down six Indian jets, including four Rafale fighters, during the four-day conflict that ended with Pakistan suffering heavy damage to several of its air bases across the country.
India has denied these claims, though Director General of Air Operations Air Marshal A K Bharti acknowledged on May 11 that “losses are a part of combat”, while emphasizing that all Indian Air Force pilots returned home safely. He also said that Pakistan had lost ‘high-technology’ aircraft, without going into specifics.
On Saturday, Gen Chauhan declined to comment on US president Donald Trump’s claim that it was he who stopped the two nations from engaging in a nuclear conflict.
The CDS only said that it was ‘far-fetched’ to suggest either side was close to using nuclear weapons.
“I personally feel that there is a lot of space between conduct of conventional operations and the nuclear threshold,” Chauhan said, while confirming that channels of communication with Pakistan “were always open” to control the situation.
He also said that there were “more sub-ladders which could be exploited for settling out issues, without needing to resort to nuclear weapons.”
On whether Operation Sindoor was a success, the General said: “We were able to do precision strikes on heavily air-defended airfields, 300 km inside Pakistan, with the precision of a metre. We have laid clear red lines.”
He made it clear that India’s response will depend on Pakistan’s actions in the future.
