PUNE: Professional militaries are not affected by temporary losses as overall outcomes are more important than such setbacks, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.
Delivering a special lecture on ‘Future Wars and Warfare’, organised by the Savitribai Phule University here, he said: “When I was asked about losses on our side... I said these are not important. The results are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses. Suppose you go to a cricket match and you win, by any means, then there’s no question about how many wickets, balls, players...”
In his lecture, Gen Chauhan appeared to reject criticism against him for acknowledging that India lost an unspecified number of combat jets during the initial phase of the operation.
The top military commander was asked about the armed forces’ losses during Operation Sindoor - India’s military response to the Pahalgam terror attack - the General referenced the loss of wickets in a cricket match, saying that if a team were to “win by any means, then there’s no question about how many wickets...”
The General’s reference to losses during Operation Sindoor follows remarks last week at an event in Singapore, in which he confirmed, for the first time, India had suffered some setbacks. This was after rumours persisted that Pakistan air defences had shot down multiple Indian fighter jets, including some of the newly purchased, French-made Rafale aircraft.
The top military commander said that Pakistan has been following an approach of bleeding India by thousand cuts but New Delhi drew a completely new redline against cross-border terrorism by conducting the Operation Sindoor.
The Chief of Defence Staff highlighted various elements of war including politics and violence and noted: In Operation Sindoor too, war and politics were happening as a parallel kind of phenomenon.
Gen Chauhan also made a mention about Pakistan Army chief Gen Asim Munir “spewing venom” against India and Hindus just weeks before the Pahalgam attack to emphasise that Islamabad’s approach has been to “bleed India by thousand cuts”.
What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards victims, he said. The thinking behind Operation Sindoor was that state-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan has to stop and that country should not be able to hold India hostage to terrorism.
India is not going to live under the shadow of terror and nuclear blackmail, Gen Chauhan said.
On India’s military offensives, he said Indian armed forces carried out very deliberate precision strikes on Pakistani targets and some of them were as narrow as two metres.
Explaining the process of the understanding on cessation of hostilities, he said Pakistan planned to carry out its counter operations against India for 48 hours but it folded up in about eight hours. And they wanted to talk, he said, highlighting the impact of Indian strikes.
Pakistan’s decision to talk to India on May 10 stemmed from realisation that it will suffer more if its operation continues, Gen Chauhan said.
Around 1 am on May 10, Pakistan aimed to get India to its knees in 48 hours as multiple attacks were launched, he said. When the request for talks and de-escalation came from Pakistan, we did accept it, Gen Chauhan said. On India’s overall approach, he said, “We have raised the bar; we have connected terror to water, we have drawn a new line of military operation against terror.”
In response to a question about the damage suffered by Pakistan during ‘Operation Sindoor’, Gen Chauhan made it clear that the operation has not ended as of now and there is a “temporary cessation of hostilities”. And then he explained. “I will give a detailed kind of an answer on this.”
“Suppose you go into a football match and you win 4-2; he scored two goals and you scored four goals. So that’s an even-sided match.”
The Chief of Defence Staff immediately shifted to the cricketing metaphor, drawing a clear distinction about the outcome of the hostilities.
“But suppose you go into a cricket test match and you win by an ‘innings defeat’,” he continued, “then there is no question of how many wickets and how many balls and how many players. It’s an innings (defeat that has been inflicted).” The top military commander’s remarks were met with loud applause from the audience as this analogy conveyed the comprehensive nature of India’s victory.