Our Bureau
Bengaluru
Last Saturday, on August 9th, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh has cleared a lot of air around the whole debate of restrictions on the Air Force during Operation Sindoor. The Air Chief has stated clearly that there were no restrictions put on them by the Central Government. He has even credited the success of the mission to the “political will” of the Government of India.
Chief Marshal Singh was at an event at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Management Academy in Bengaluru. While addressing the audience, Chief Singh stated that they were given very clear directions on how to carry out the operation and there were no restrictions put on them. Instead he revealed that any constraints that were put were all self-made to control further escalation.
“A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There was a very clear political will and very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us… If there were any constraints, they were self-made. The forces decided what the rules of engagement would be. We decided how we wanted to control the escalation. We had full freedom to plan and execute,” Air Chief Marshal said.
“There was a synchronisation between the three forces… The post of CDS made a real difference. He was there to get us together. NSA also played a big role in getting all the agencies,” he added.
A few days back, Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the “Political will” of the Government during a discussion in the Parliament on Operation Sindoor. He pointed out that Indian government had told the Pakistani government their plan of attack and showed them we have no political will.
“You told the Pakistanis exactly what you would do. You told them we would not hit military targets, you told them we do not want escalation… It means you have directly told Pakistan that you do not have the political will to fight. This is said by the Defence Minister. It means the government of India informed the Pakistani government that we have no political will, we don’t want to fight, ” the Congress leader said.
The LoP also referred to remarks by Chief of Defence Staff Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan and Captain Shiv Kumar, stating that India did lose some aircrafts but that was totally because of the constraints put on them by the political leadership. Gandhi highlighted that this meant Indian pilots were sent into Pakistan with their hands tied behind their back.
“It means – You went into Pakistan and told our pilots not to attack their air defence systems. It means you told your pilots to go and attack Pakistan and face their air defence system. It means you tied their hands behind their back.” Gandhi stated.
