‘Reveal the truth’: Congress questions govt after CDS’s remark on Operation Sindoor

The Congress on Saturday raised questions about the potential losses to the armed forces during the Operation Sindoor and asked the government to “reveal the truth”.

 

The opposition party’s demand came after Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan acknowledged that India had lost aircraft in the hostilities. In an interview to Reuters, the CDS, however, dismissed as "absolutely incorrect" Islamabad's claim of downing six Indian jets.

 

Citing the interview, Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy said the government needs to be transparent and tell the country whether any aircraft were downed during the conflict.

 

"A government has to be transparent. Accountability is normal in a democracy. This is not about patriotism. We are more patriotic. Our first family, the Gandhi family, themselves suffered and have made huge sacrifices for the integrity of the country and these people question us. This is really shocking, bizarre," Reddy said.

 

He, however, added that the Congress party supports the armed forces in their every endeavour.

 

Another senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned whether the Centre would take steps to form a review committee in the light of information shared by Gen Chahuan.

 

Recalling that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had constituted a review committee after the Kargil war in 1999 under strategic affairs analyst K. Subrahmanyam (father of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar), Ramesh asked if the Narendra Modi government would take a similar step.

 

“This (Kargil Review) Committee submitted its detailed report five months later. The report titled 'From Surprise to Reckoning' was then laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament on February 23, 2000, after the necessary redactions. Will the Modi government now take a similar step in light of what the Chief of Defence Staff has just revealed in Singapore?," Ramesh said.

 

Earlier, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, the CDS admitted that the armed forces had suffered losses in the initial stages of the operation but then struck with impunity at Pakistan's bases.

 

"So what I can say is, on May 7 and the initial stages, there were losses, but the numbers and that's not important. What was important is why did these losses occur, and what will we do after that? So we rectified the tactics and then went back on seventh, eighth and 10th, and 10th in large numbers, to hit their bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their defences with impunity, with scattered opposition strikes," he told the news agency.

India