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John Spencer said Operation Sindoor “exceeded its strategic aims” as it neutralised terrorist infrastructure and showcased India’s military dominance.

Operation Sindoor has become a testament to India’s growing military prowess, targeting nine key terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), avenging the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and redefining India’s anti-terror strategy on the global stage, said John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute and Executive Director of the Urban Warfare Institute.

In a detailed article posted on X, titled “Operation Sindoor: A Decisive Victory in Modern Warfare”, Spencer stated that India had achieved a “massive victory” following Operation Sindoor, which he claimed is still not “completely over” despite the undertaking of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan.

“What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan told Bloomberg TV.

India’s military confirmed for the first time that it lost an unspecified number of fighter jets in clashes with Pakistan in May, while saying the four-day conflict never came close to the point of nuclear war.

“What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Anil Chauhan, chief of defence staff of the Indian Armed Forces, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Saturday, while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

He called Pakistan’s claims that it shot down six Indian warplanes “absolutely incorrect,” though declined to specify how many jets India lost.

“Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that are important,” General Chauhan said when asked about the fighter jets. “Numbers are not important,” he added.

“The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,” General Chauhan said.

The comments are the most direct yet from an Indian government or military official on the fate of the country’s fighter jets during the conflict with Pakistan that erupted on May 7.

Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country shot down six Indian fighter jets, an assertion that hasn’t been independently verified. India’s government had earlier refrained from commenting on whether it lost aircraft in the fighting.

The Centre has formed many delegations as a part of its diplomatic outreach program after Operation Sindoor – a targeted military strike on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Former union minister MJ Akbar criticised Pakistan, calling its government double-faced and deceptive during an Indian event in Copenhagen. He emphasised that talks with Pakistan are mere bluffs, claiming they exploit discussions to prepare for terrorism.

Former union minister MJ Akbar, part of the all-party delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, took a “snake” jibe at Pakistan, saying the country has a government with a “forked tongue” and is “double-faced”. Speaking to an Indian crowd in Copenhagen, the former minister of state for external affairs referred to the talks Pakistan has been pushing India for after New Delhi’s strong measures against Islamabad in view of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people died.

“Pakistan has a government with a double face, which face do we talk to? Pakistan has a government with a forked tongue, whose tongue do we address? Pakistan has talks with a poisoned tongue…Who gets hurt when a tongue is poisoned? A snake is never killed by its own poison,” Mr Akbar said.

He added, “And yet we have the moral courage to say that we will talk on the issues that matter. We will not waste our time on talks which have become an excuse. All talks with Pakistan are simply a period which Pakistan exploits in order to prepare itself for the next terrorist attack. The talks are nothing but a bluff.”

An engineer in Mumbai sketching warship blueprints after being honey-trapped on Facebook, a travel vlogger in Haryana escorted by armed men through Lahore’s markets, India has made several arrests in recent weeks.

Since the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s retaliatory strikes under Operation Sindoor, Indian counterintelligence agencies have been on high alert. Over the past month, at least 15 individuals across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Punjab have been detained or arrested. 

An engineer in Mumbai sketching warship blueprints after being honey-trapped on Facebook, a travel vlogger in Haryana escorted by armed men through Lahore’s markets, a Rajasthan government employee with seven unexplained trips to Pakistan, and a SIM card supplier in Deeg funnelling information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) handlers – each arrest, unconnected yet similar, reveals a wide network of people engaged in passing sensitive information to Pakistan. 

According to the data by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala has recorded 1,147 cases, Maharashtra 424, Delhi 294, and Gujarat 223.

India’s active coronavirus cases have risen to nearly 3,000, with Kerala fighting the latest resurgence of infections – followed by Maharashtra, and Delhi. Official data shows a quick rise in the cases within four days. While India recorded a total of 1,010 cases by May 26, the official data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shows a total of 2,710 infections as of May 30.

According to the data, Kerala has recorded 1,147 cases, Maharashtra 424, Delhi 294, and Gujarat 223. Tamil Nadu has recorded a total of 148 cases so far, while Karnataka and West Bengal have reported 148 and 116 cases, respectively.

Rajasthan has reported 51 cases, Uttar Pradesh 42, Puducherry 25, Haryana 20, Andhra Pradesh 16, Madhya Pradesh 10, Goa seven, and Odisha, Punjab, and Jammu Kashmir four each. Three states – Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh have reported three cases each, while Mizoram and Assam have two people detected with the infection each so far.

No active case has been reported from Andaman and Nicobar, Sikkim, and Himachal Pradesh. The official data for Bihar is not yet available.

Family and dynasty politics are an uncomfortable political reality in India; in some cases, it has led to the decimation of strong political forces.

Every regional political party in India, barring one or two notable exceptions like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, are a family enterprise. Succession battles put father against son, brother against brother or sisters or cousins. It’s the rule and not the exception.

Two such battles are currently playing out in South Indian politics – one in the Bharatiya Rahstriya Samiti (BRS) between the party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha and son KT Rama Rao, the other between the founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Tamil Nadu, Dr S Ramadoss, and his son Dr Anbumani Ramadoss.

These are both just the latest in a long list of bitter family, political soap operas that have infested Indian politics. It’s more pronounced in the southern states simply because of the power of the regional forces. And, the battles always have strong personal, financial and emotional dimensions apart from the political.

The rift in the BRS between former Chief Minister and party patriarch K Chandrashekar Rao’s son KT Rama Rao and daughter K Kavitha is an open secret. It was waiting to explode, especially after the BRS’s defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections, which was followed by the mighty Chandrashekar Rao’s retreat into silence and keeping himself away from the public glare.

Turn back time, and Chandrashekar Rao looked frail lying in a hospital bed in Hyderabad in December 2009, when I first met him. He had begun a fast unto death for Telangana on November 29, 2009, and when reporters arrived to meet him, it was his daughter K Kavitha who was attending to him and granting access. Her brother KT Rama Rao (KTR) was a first-time MLA by then. He had returned from the US and did not sound much like a politician, more like a sophisticated corporate voice.

On December 9, in a midnight announcement, the Congress buckled to the KCR fast and made a knee-jerk announcement of its agreement to split united Andhra Pradesh and carve out Telangana. KCR had catapulted to fame, but the lobbying and bitter battle in the Congress over the decision continued in Delhi till 2014, when the bifurcation was finally implemented, much to the Congress’s peril.

Between 2010 and 2014, both Kavitha and KTR were actively building their profile. KTR, as the MLA, was firmly becoming the face of the party in the national media during the bitter and hectic campaign for Telangana. Kavitha was building her political and business network. She was spearheading the Bathukamma festival, a powerful cultural event for the state’s identity.

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