'Losses are not important, outcomes are': CDS General Anil Chauhan on Operation Sindoor 'setbacks'

NEW DELHI: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that "professional military forces are not affected by setbacks and losses," days after claiming that India did lose some fighter jets during Operation Sindoor . However, losses are not important, but outcomes are, he added.

'Morale needs to remain high even if there are setbacks'

"I think, professional forces are not affected by setbacks or losses; in a war, what is important is that the morale needs to remain high even if there are setbacks. Adaptability is an important constituent of a very professional force. You should be able to understand what went wrong, need to rectify your mistake and go again. You cannot sit down in fear," he said while delivering a special lecture on the topic 'future wars and warfare' organised by Savitribai Phule Pune University.

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Last week, Chauhan claimed that India lost some fighter jets while striking terror hubs in Pakistan and Pok and the consequent retaliation on May 7. He added that forces then changed tactics to inflict major damage on air bases deep across the border before the ceasefire three days later.


"What I can say is on May 7, in the initial stages, there were losses," Gen Chauhan had said.

'There was an inherent amount of risk'

Making a strong statement, he said, "Pakistan should not be able to hold India hostage to terrorist activities," adding that New Delhi is not going to live under the shadow of terror and nuclear blackmail.

He added that the thinking behind Operation Sindoor was that state-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan had to stop.

"Both nations (India & Pakistan) had tried to build different kinds of capabilities, so obviously there was an inherent amount of risk in this. None of the capabilities that we had acquired had been into the battlefield. There is always an element of risk in it, but as they say, you cannot succeed if you don’t take that type of risk. We knew that we had a better counter-drone system," Chauhan said.

He further said that what happened in Pahalgam on April 22 is "unacceptable to this modern world."

"What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims because all of them were killed with head shots in front of their families and their children, and they were shot in the name of religion, which is kind of unacceptable to this modern world. This caused a huge revulsion in society. There was a kind of hatred. It revived memories because this was not a single act of terror against India. Western nations may have had one or two acts of terror. India has been a victim of the maximum terror acts, and almost 20,000 people have been killed," he added.

How Pak’s '48-hour plan to cripple India' crumbled in just 8 hours?

He further explained how Pakistan's 48-hour plan to cripple India crumbled in just 8 hours and it had to call for a ceasefire.

He said, "On the 10th of May, at about 1 am, their (Pakistan's) aim was to get India to its knees in 48 hours. Multiple attacks were launched, and in some manner, they have escalated this conflict, which we had hit only terror targets. Operations which they thought would continue for 48 hours, folded up in about 8 hours, and then they picked up the telephone and said they wanted to talk.'

'Operation Sindoor is not over as yet'

CDS Chauhan said that Operation Sindoor is not over as yet, and it continues. "It's a temporary cessation of hostilities. There is a need to keep our guard up," he said.

He also said, "From our side, we didn't want to get into a long-drawn conflict. We've seen our experience in Operation Prakaram. We were there for almost nine months. It involves a lot of expenditure, disrupts everything. We had seen this to some extent after Balakot, there was a deployment which we had mobilised. In this particular case, what happened was that before this mobilisation could be completed, the operations were halted. Operation Sindoor is not over as yet. It continues. It's a temporary cessation of hostilities. There is a need to keep our guard up. As far as the Pakistani side is concerned, I can make two guesses. One, that they were losing things faster at a very long distance, and they thought that if this continued for some more time, they were likely to lose more, and hence they picked up the telephone."