&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'Congress hates Indian Armed Forces': BJP hits back at former Maharashtra CM over Operation Sindoor remarks")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (December 16) launched a sharp attack on senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan over his comments on the Indian Air Force and Operation Sindoor, accusing the Congress of consistently undermining the armed forces. The controversy erupted after Chavan claimed that India had suffered a complete setback on the first day of Operation Sindoor. He further alleged that the Indian Air Force did not carry out any sorties and remained inactive during the operation, triggering widespread criticism.
Reacting strongly, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla termed Chavan’s remarks “deeply disturbing” and accused the Congress of disrespecting the military. In a post on social media platform X, Poonawalla said that insulting the armed forces has become a defining trait of the Congress party.
Chavan also questioned the relevance of maintaining a large standing army, suggesting that modern warfare would largely be limited to aerial and missile-based engagements. Referring to Operation Sindoor, he argued that there was no ground movement of troops and wondered whether India truly needs an army of nearly 12 lakh personnel or if they could be redeployed for other purposes. "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 they do some other work?" he was quoted as saying news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, speculation about Indian fighter aircraft being shot down during the operation gained traction following remarks attributed to a Defence Attache. The Indian government later clarified that these comments, made at a seminar in Indonesia, were taken out of context and did not reflect the actual intent of the presentation. Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7, 2025, in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives. The operation involved precision strikes on terror infrastructure linked to groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, resulting in the elimination of over 100 terrorists.
