ISLAMABAD: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday expressed anger at senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for his remarks on the Indian Air Force and Operation Sindoor, saying that the Congress party “hates Indian armed forces.”
Chavan, speaking in Marathi, was addressing a meeting of his party workers in Pune, where he also questioned the need to maintain large military forces, saying wars would be fought in the air.
‘We were completely defeated’
On Operation Sindoor, he was quoted as saying: “On the very first day, we faced a complete defeat. On the 7th (May), during an aerial battle that lasted only half an hour, we were completely defeated, whether one accepts it or not. On that day, Indian aircraft were shot down, and the entire Indian Air Force was grounded. After that, not a single aircraft flew, because wherever a plane took off, whether from Gwalior, Bathinda, or Sirsa, there was a high risk of it being shot down by Pakistan. For this reason, our entire Air Force was grounded…”
Responding, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla criticized Chavan’s “shocking controversial statements” and said, “Congress hates Indian Armed Forces. Sena ka apman is Congress ki pehchan [Insulting the army is Congress’s identity],” he posted on X.
Further criticizing the Congress leader in his post, he said: “From Sadak ka gunda [street thug] to doubting Sindoor/Surgical Strike/Balakote and even Op Mahadev.”
