WEBDESK: Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera has launched a sharp attack on the Modi government following a public admission by Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s Defence Attaché to Indonesia, who revealed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) lost fighter jets to Pakistan on the night of 7 May 2025 in operation Sindoor due to political restrictions imposed by India’s leadership.
Khera exposes the Modi government of misleading the nation from the very beginning by refusing to disclose the scale of losses suffered during Operation Sindoor.
“The Modi government has misled the nation from the start failing to disclose the aircraft losses during Operation Sindoor,” Khera stated.
The controversy over the IAF’s losses began with indirect remarks during an earlier briefing by DG Air Ops (Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti), who commented that “we are in a combat situation and losses are a part of combat.” No specific numbers were disclosed at the time.
It was later Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, who, while speaking to Bloomberg TV in Singapore, made the first official admission of IAF attrition.
Now, Captain Shiv Kumar’s revelation in Indonesia has intensified the matter. At a seminar, Kumar confirmed that fighter jets were lost because of “the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defences.”
Congress Holds Modi Govt Accountable for Operation Sindoor Failure
Pawan Khera pointed to this admission as a serious indictment of the Modi government, particularly Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. He accused the government of avoiding transparency and accountability.
“No wonder they are ducking our demand for a Special Session of Parliament like the plague. They know they’ve compromised national security, and they’re terrified of what the Congress Party will expose before the people of India,” Khera added.
