An Indian naval officer has conceded that the nation misplaced fighter jets to Pakistani fireplace throughout their battle in Could and says the losses had been a results of “constraints” positioned on Indian forces by the federal government in New Delhi.
Captain Shiv Kumar, defence attache on the Indian embassy in Jakarta, made the feedback at a seminar in Indonesia on June 10. The remarks went largely unnoticed on the time till The Wire, an Indian publication, reported on them on Sunday.
Kumar’s claims have sparked a political storm in India, the place the opposition Indian Nationwide Congress occasion referred to as them an “indictment” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities.
So what did Kumar say, how have the Indian authorities and opposition responded, and what occurred between India and Pakistan on Could 7?
What occurred between India and Pakistan on Could 7?
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated right into a navy confrontation on Could 7 when India launched Operation Sindoor, focusing on 9 websites in six cities in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with multiple missile attacks.
India mentioned it hit “terrorist infrastructure” in response to the killings of vacationers on April 22 in Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir. Pakistan, alternatively, mentioned dozens of civilians had been killed within the missile assaults together with a number of navy personnel.
Islamabad mentioned it downed six Indian jets in retaliation, together with at the least three Rafale fighters. Pakistan navy spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry mentioned all of the planes had been downed inside Indian territory. An data warfare additionally ensued, wherein India and Pakistan traded conflicting allegations and claims, however they each agreed on one truth: Plane from neither facet crossed into the opposite’s territory in the course of the assaults.
In subsequent days, the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours exchanged tit-for-tat missile strikes and drone assaults on one another’s territory till a ceasefire was reached on Could 10. It was introduced by United States President Donald Trump, who insisted he brokered it – a declare New Delhi rejects. India insisted all its disputes with Pakistan have to be settled bilaterally and there’s no room for third-party involvement.
What has the Indian naval attache in Indonesia mentioned?
Through the seminar organised by Air Marshal Suryadarma College in Indonesia, Kumar mentioned he “could not agree [with an earlier Indonesian speaker’s claim] that we misplaced so many plane, however I do agree we did lose some plane”.
Kumar added: “That occurred solely due to the constraints given by the political management to not assault the navy institution or their air defence” on Could 7.
The naval attache mentioned the Indian navy subsequently modified techniques and started to focus on Pakistani navy installations.
“We first achieved suppression of enemy air defences, after which that’s why all our assaults may simply undergo utilizing Brahmos missiles,” Kumar added.
The Brahmos, a product of an Indian-Russian three way partnership, is a long-range missile. Indian media reported that India fired Brahmos missiles at Pakistani airbases on the evening of Could 9-10.
What has India beforehand mentioned in regards to the fighter jets?
After Pakistan first mentioned it had shot down six Indian jets on Could 7, New Delhi didn’t formally verify or deny these assertions.
When Chinese language state information outlet The World Occasions reported that Pakistan had introduced down the Indian fighters, the Indian embassy in China described it as “disinformation”.
However subsequently, Indian officers began to recommend that that they had misplaced planes.
When requested by reporters on Could 11 whether or not Pakistan had managed to down Indian jets, Indian Director General of Air Operations AK Bharti mentioned: “We’re in a fight state of affairs, and losses are part of it. As for particulars, right now, I’d not wish to touch upon that as we’re nonetheless in fight and provides benefit to the adversary. All our pilots are again residence.”
Then, General Anil Chauhan, India’s chief of defence workers admitted that Indian jets had been downed by Pakistan, with out specifying the variety of jets, throughout interviews on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue safety discussion board in Singapore, which passed off Could 30 to June 1.
Chauhan’s acknowledgement, made throughout interviews with the Reuters information company and Bloomberg TV, marked the primary time an Indian official admitted that Indian jets had been shot down. “What was vital is why did these losses happen and what we’ll do after that,” Chauhan mentioned.
When a Bloomberg reporter requested Chauhan about Pakistan’s claims that six Indian jets had been downed, Chauhan responded that this data was incorrect. He added that “what’s vital is … not the jets being downed however why they had been downed”.
Chauhan mentioned India “rectified techniques” after the Could 7 losses after which “hit airbases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes” earlier than the Could 10 ceasefire.
How has the Indian authorities responded to Kumar’s feedback?
In a press release posted on its X account on Sunday, the Indian embassy in Indonesia mentioned: “[Kumar’s] remarks have been quoted out of context and the media experiences are a mis-representation of the intention and thrust of the presentation made by the speaker.”
The embassy mentioned that within the presentation, Kumar defined that Operation Sindoor was launched to focus on “terrorist infrastructure” and the attache was making an attempt to stress that the Indian response was intentionally not escalatory.
“The presentation conveyed that the Indian Armed Forces serve below civilian political management in contrast to another international locations in our neighbourhood,” it added in a barb at Pakistan, the place the navy is essentially the most dominant establishment.
We’ve got seen media experiences relating to a presentation made by the Defence Attache at a Seminar.
His remarks have been quoted out of context and the media experiences are a mis-representation of the intention and thrust of the presentation made by the speaker.
The presentation…
— India in Indonesia (@IndianEmbJkt) June 29, 2025
Is that this a shift in India’s place?
Probably not. Whereas neither the Indian authorities nor the navy has ever bluntly linked the lack of jets to the Modi administration’s orders to the armed forces on Could 7, New Delhi has been constant in its narrative over its goals that day.
In a media assertion after India launched missiles on Could 7, International Secretary Vikram Misri mentioned the actions of India’s navy “had been measured, nonescalatory, proportionate and accountable”.
Colonel Sofia Qureshi of the Indian military, who accompanied Misri to the briefing, emphasised that “no navy institutions had been focused”.
After the ceasefire, Indian International Minister S Jaishankar advised reporters that earlier than firing at Pakistan on Could 7, New Delhi had “despatched a message to Pakistan that we’re firing at terrorist infrastructure, we aren’t placing on the navy, so the [Pakistani] navy has the choice of standing out and never interfering on this course of”.
“They selected to not take that good recommendation,” Jaishankar mentioned.
The Indian authorities argued that the Pakistani navy’s response to New Delhi’s Could 7 assault compelled it to additionally retaliate, culminating within the missile exchanges on Could 10.
Why has this reignited the row with India’s opposition occasion?
The principle opposition Congress occasion has been asking Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion authorities to tell parliament about India’s air losses in the course of the battle.
When Chauhan admitted Indian planes had been downed, Congress members demanded a evaluation of India’s defence preparedness.
“There are some essential questions which have to be requested,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote in an X submit on the time. “These can solely be requested if a Particular Session of the Parliament is instantly convened.”
Kumar’s remarks have revived these calls.
“The Modi authorities has misled the nation from the beginning – failing to reveal the plane losses throughout Operation Sindoor,” Congress chief Pawan Khera wrote on X on Sunday, calling the feedback by Kumar an “indictment” of the federal government.
“No surprise they’re ducking our demand for a Particular Session of Parliament just like the plague. They know they’ve compromised nationwide safety, and so they’re petrified of what the Congress Occasion will expose earlier than the folks of India,” Khera wrote.
One other Congress chief, Jairam Ramesh, posted on X on Sunday: “Why is the PM refusing to preside over an all-party assembly and take the Opposition into confidence? Why has the demand for a particular session of Parliament been rejected?”
What sparked the Could battle?
On April 22, a gaggle of armed males killed 26 folks – nearly all of them vacationers – in Pahalgam, a preferred vacationer vacation spot in India-administered Kashmir. An armed group referred to as The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed accountability for the assault.
New Delhi insisted that the TRF is an offshoot of one other Pakistan-based armed group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and has blamed Pakistan for supporting such teams. Islamabad denied the allegation and referred to as for a impartial inquiry into the assault.
After the Pahalgam assault, the already dwindling relationship between the neighbours worsened. Pakistan and India scaled back their diplomatic engagement, suspended their participation in bilateral treaties and expelled one another’s residents.