The Narendra Modi government found itself in a corner on Saturday once again over losses during the post Operation Sindoor skirmish with Pakistan after US President Donald Trump said that five fighter jets had been downed in the four days.
“Modi ji, what is the truth about the 5 jets? The country has the right to know!” Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote on social media on Saturday afternoon.
The Congress said Prime Minister Modi should now himself make a clear and categorical statement in Parliament on Trump’s claims over the last 70 days.
"We stopped a lot of wars,” Trump said. “And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that was going on. Planes were being shot down in the air. I think five jets were shot down, actually.
India and Pakistan, he said, “were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade. We said, you guys want to make a trade deal. We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states.”
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said: "The sensational new revelation by President Trump this time around is that five jets may have been downed. The prime minister, who has had years of friendship and huglomacy with President Trump going back to Howdy Modi in September 2019 and Namaste Trump in February 2020, has to now himself make a clear and categorical statement in Parliament on what President Trump has been claiming over the past 70 days.”
Congress MP Manickam Tagore questioned what was stopping the government from “issuing clarifications” over the matter and whether it is “afraid of telling the truth” on how cessation of hostilities took place between India and Pakistan.
Trump did not specify the break-up of the five jets downed – of how many were Indian or Pakistani. But Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra asserted that India had lost at least one Rafale.
“Each Rafaele jet was bought with $250 mn of tax payer money. We know at least 1 was shot down,” Moitra posted. “Now @POTUS says total 5 jets (not all Rafaeles ) were downed. Doesn’t India deserve a post Sindoor briefing?”
Admissions about losses in the four-day conflict have come via the military, to the foreign press.
First, it was Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan who told Bloomberg and Reuters in Singapore that India did lose fighter jets, without specifying the number, because of initial tactical mistakes that were later corrected.
Then, India’s defence attaché in Jakarta Captain Shiv Kumar said in June that India lost some aircraft because the military had been told not to hit Pakistan’s air defences. “After the loss, we changed our tactics and we went for their military installations,” Captain Kumar said.
Why India lost aircraft
India’s losses are of keen interest worldwide. This is the first time Chinese – Pakistan’s biggest arms supplier – weaponry have been battle tested against European, US and Russian munitions used by the Indian forces.
The Economist reported three theories on why India suffered initial losses.
“One theory among foreign officials is that on the first day, India did not mount its Rafales with Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles (presumably thinking that they were beyond the reach of Pakistan’s fighters or that Pakistan’s initial response would be less escalatory),” it said.
“Another is that India’s fighters did not have the right electronic jamming equipment, up-to-date software or relevant data to protect them from Pakistan’s new weaponry. A third, and broader, explanation is that India lacked the necessary “mission data” to understand how Pakistan could identify Indian plans, pass data to its own jets and guide missiles to their targets.”
It added: “But if the fighters were made vulnerable because of orders from political leaders to only hit militant targets, as Captain Kumar suggests, then responsibility would lie more with the government of Narendra Modi.”
