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Former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan also alleged that the India Air Force was “completely grounded” due to the high probability of an aircraft being shot down by Pakistan
Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan’s comments on Operation Sindoor have sparked a major political controversy. (Image: ANI)
Congress veteran and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has made a shocking claim about ‘Operation Sindoor’, India’s military response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Chavan alleged that India was completely defeated on the “very first day” of Operation Sindoor, stressing that the air force was “completely grounded” due to the high probability of an aircraft being shot down by Pakistan.
“On the first day (of Operation Sindoor), we were completely defeated. In the half-hour aerial engagement that took place on the 7th, we were fully defeated, whether people accept it or not. Indian aircraft were shot down. The Air Force was completely grounded, and not a single aircraft flew. If any aircraft had taken off from Gwalior, Bathinda, or Sirsa, there was a high probability of being shot down by Pakistan, which is why the air force was fully grounded,” Chavan said during a press conference in Pune.
His comments have sparked a major political controversy, but he did not stop there. There were more controversial statements to follow. The BJP accused him for “parroting” Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s “views” on the four-day military action by India on “terror targets” in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Chavan went a step ahead and questioned the relevance of the Indian Army, which is the world’s largest standing army. He used the handling of the conflict to question the need for maintaining large ground forces.
He claimed that during the entire operation, there was “not even a one-kilometre movement of the military”. Instead, the events that unfolded over the two or three days consisted “only an aerial war and missile warfare”.
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Pune: Former Maharashtra CM and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan says, “Recently, we saw during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a one-kilometre movement of the military… Whatever happened over two or three days was only an aerial war and missile warfare. In the… pic.twitter.com/9xDCB7gdm2— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2025
“Recently, we saw during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a one-kilometre movement of the military… Whatever happened over two or three days was only an aerial war and missile warfare. In the future too, wars will be fought in the same way. In such a situation, do we really need to maintain an army of 12 lakh soldiers, or can we make them do some other work?” he asked.
The Congress leader insisted that in the future, too, wars will be fought in the same way, stressing that aerial warfare is the future.
Operation Sindoor was launched after 26 people were gunned down during a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Although Chavan referenced claims regarding Indian fighter jets being shot down, India has officially refuted such reports that had circulated following a defence attache’s statement insisting that the earlier remarks were “taken out of context”.
According to the military, more than 100 terrorists were killed during the operation using modern assets like Rafale jets, SCALP missiles, and HAMMER bombs.
(With agency inputs)
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. December 16, 2025, 19:59 IST
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