Row Erupts Over Indian Defence Attache’s Remarks on IAF Losses During Operation Sindoor

New Delhi/Jakarta, June 30, 2025 — A political controversy has erupted over remarks made by Captain Shiv Kumar, the Indian defence attache in Indonesia, who indicated that the Indian Air Force lost fighter jets during the initial phase of Operation Sindoor due to restrictions imposed by political leadership against striking Pakistani military targets.

A video of Captain Kumar’s comments from a June 10 seminar in Jakarta surfaced on Sunday, prompting sharp reactions from India’s political opposition and clarifications from the Indian embassy in Indonesia.

Captain Kumar, a Navy officer, had been speaking at a university seminar titled “Analysis of the Pakistan-India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies from the Perspective of Air Power.”

In his presentation, he explained that the Indian Air Force faced “constraints” in the early days of Operation Sindoor because the political leadership had mandated avoiding strikes on Pakistani military installations or air defences.

“We did lose some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership not to attack the military establishment or their air defence system,” he said in the video. “But after the loss, we changed our tactics and went for the military installations. So we first achieved suppression and destruction of enemy air defence and then that is why all our attacks could easily go through using surface-to-air missiles and Brahmos surface-to-surface missiles,” he added.

Operation Sindoor began on May 7 as an Indian military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, with strikes targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan-controlled territories. The operation sparked four days of heavy clashes, concluding on May 10 after India conveyed to Pakistan that it did not wish to escalate further.

Around a month earlier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, speaking in Singapore, confirmed that India revised its tactics and struck deep into Pakistani territory after suffering aircraft losses in the conflict, though he did not specify the number of losses.

The opposition Congress party seized on Captain Kumar’s reported comments on Sunday, accusing the government of misleading the public about the costs and outcomes of the operation.

However, the Indian embassy in Jakarta issued a statement asserting that Captain Kumar’s remarks were quoted out of context.

“His remarks have been quoted out of context and the media reports are a misrepresentation of the intention and thrust of the presentation,” the embassy said in a social media post. “The presentation conveyed that the Indian Armed Forces serve under civilian political leadership unlike some other countries in our neighbourhood.”

The embassy also clarified that Operation Sindoor’s objective was non-escalatory and focused solely on terrorist infrastructure.

As the political row continues in India, analysts note that Captain Kumar’s remarks echo broader debates about the balance between political oversight and military operations in high-stakes conflicts.