What did CDS Gen. Chauhan say and why is he under fire?

On the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue in Singapore, India’s CDS (chief of defence services) Gen. Anil Chauhan that the government of India has hidden from the country for the past three weeks. In interviews given to Bloomberg and Reuters, Gen. Chauhan admitted that IAF planes were hit by Pakistan and that they were out of action for two days before returning to strike mode on 10 May.

The admission has led to vicious online trolling of the CDS by people known to be supporters of the BJP and PM Narendra Modi. Some have taken offence to the admission made on foreign soil. Others believe the CDS spoke out of turn and has ended up handing a propaganda victory to Pakistan.

Security expert Brahma Chellaney decried the ‘poor public diplomacy’ and felt that such admissions should have been made from Indian soil. “The fact that the Singapore forum was also attended by Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff only helped to hyphenate India with Pakistan,” he added.

The closest the Indian defence forces had come to admitting the losses was when DG (IAF) Air Marshal A.K. Bharti told the media, when asked, that in combat there are always losses. However, even three weeks after Operation Sindoor was halted, the CDS evaded answering how many IAF planes were hit by Pakistan’s missiles.

The number, he said, was not important. What was important was that the IAF identified the tactical mistakes that had resulted in losses, rectified the mistakes and went back on air, he added. Asked to comment on Pakistan’s claim that it had downed six IAF planes, the CDS replied, “absolutely incorrect”, suggesting that the loss of aircraft was less than six but could well be four or five.

Poor public diplomacy: The Modi government needlessly dispatched India’s Chief of Defense Staff to a forum in Singapore, where he handed a propaganda victory to Pakistan by acknowledging Indian warplane losses in a Reuters interview on the sidelines. Such admissions should have…

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) June 1, 2025

“Frankly, I do not understand the need to be so coy about this. A mature military should be able to acknowledge losses, learn from them and move on,” remarked commentator Praveen Swami. The reluctance to admit the loss of aircraft and the number of such aircraft has given rise to needless speculation that India’s losses were more severe than the government or the armed forces are willing to admit in public.

The Indian government has also not denied reports that a French audit team from Dassault Aviation, keen to physically inspect the damage, if any, to the Rafale fighter planes it supplied to the IAF, was not given permission to visit IAF bases.

The CDS has also come in for criticism from strategic and defence experts. Pravin Sawhney has weighed in to say, “What Anil Chauhan is saying is that for two days IAF fleet was grounded. This is enough reason for him to resign — making light of a serious matter. When for two days out of four, the IAF (which will be the key determinant of war outcome) is not in the air, it needs some guts to say that India did well in Operation Sindoor”.

Sawhney also batted for an IAF officer as the CDS since in future wars, the Air Force will have to play the key role. In a veiled reference to the post-Op-Sindoor narrative by PM Modi and its politicisation, he commented, “India needs a government which understands military power in changing global geopolitics & does not fool around with it”.

Frankly, I do not understand the need to be so coy about this. A mature military should be able to acknowledge losses, learn from them and move on. https://t.co/cdZVJY0Kcw

— Praveen Swami (@praveenswami) May 31, 2025

For the record, this is what the CDS said at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, 31 May:

• India does not depend on any one country for its defence needs. We get the equipment and systems from a vast number of countries and most of the systems worked quite well…we were able to hit with pinpoint accuracy, often within one meter, 300 kilometres within Pakistan

• Initially, on the first day of the conflict we suffered some losses…I think what is important is not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed. Why they were downed? The good part is we understood the tactical mistake, remedied it, rectified it, and flew all our jets again after two days, targeting at long range.

• Asked by Bloomberg if the Pakistani claim of downing six Indian jets was correct, the CDS said: “Absolutely incorrect.”

• He told Reuters that the IAF “flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordnances on the 10th” of May, the day India struck air bases deep inside Pakistan, including the Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi.

• It is my personal view that most rational are the people in uniform when conflict takes place…during the conflict I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts and in their actions

• Satellite imagery is available commercially, so Pakistan could have got them from allies or any other source

• Prolonged warfare has an economic cost and slows down the pace of development. Defence forces disengage quickly after every conflict concludes. Indian defence forces have been in a state of mobilisation for a long time without any combat…

• The Indian government has made it clear that any act of terror sponsored by Pakistan would receive a military response. That has its own dynamics…It will require us to be prepared 24 x 7.