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New Indian Express
03-06-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Outcome matters more than losses in war: Chief of Defence Staff on Operation Sindoor
PUNE: Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that in military operations, it is the outcome that matters more than the losses suffered. His comments come days after India admitted to losing a few fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, carried out in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Speaking at a special lecture on 'Future Wars and Warfare' at Savitribai Phule University in Pune, General Chauhan said, 'Professional military forces are not affected by setbacks and losses.' Addressing questions on the losses, he added, 'When I was asked about losses on our side... I said these are not important. The results are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses. Suppose you go to a cricket match and you win, by any means, then there's no question about how many wickets, balls, players.' Stressing the importance of adaptability in the armed forces, he said, 'You should be able to understand what went wrong, need to rectify your mistake and go again. You cannot sit down in fear.' As TNIE earlier reported, when asked whether Pakistani forces shot down an Indian jet or more during Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan told Bloomberg TV on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, 'What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down, what mistakes were made, that are 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.' While stressing 'numbers are not important,' he also denied Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's claim that the Pakistan Air Force had downed six Indian jets, including four Rafale fighters, during the brief military confrontation. His comments mark the first clear public admission from the Indian military that some aircraft were lost during the four-day conflict under Operation Sindoor. The operation was launched by India on May 7 in response to the brutal killing of 26 Indian tourists in Pahalgam. Explaining the objective behind the operation, General Chauhan said, 'The thinking behind Op Sindoor was (also) that Pakistan should not be able to hold India hostage to terrorism. India is not going to live under the shadow of terror and nuclear blackmail.' He also said, 'What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims... because all were killed with headshots in front of their families and their children, and they were shot in the name of religion... India has been the victim of a maximum terror acts... almost 20,000 people have been killed.'
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Business Standard
03-06-2025
- General
- Business Standard
'Losses don't matter, action does': CDS Anil Chauhan on Operation Sindoor
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that losses were secondary to results and action, while speaking about India's retaliatory strike under Operation Sindoor. While addressing a special lecture at the Savitribai Phule University in Pune, CDS Chauhan said, "When I was asked about losses on our side, I said these are not important." Giving a Test cricket analogy, CDS Chauhan said if someone wins by an innings, then there's no question of "how many wickets, how many balls and how many players". "The results and how you act are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses," he said. On specifics of losses incurred by Pakistan, CDS Chauhan said, "Based on technical parameters, we will take out this particular data and share it with you. We will tell you how many aircraft and radars we destroyed. We'll make a rough assessment of that and come out with that shortly." #WATCH | Pune: On being asked about the losses incurred from Pakistan side during Operation Sindoor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan says, "When I was asked about losses on our side, I said these are not important. The results and how you act are important. It… — ANI (@ANI) June 3, 2025 Last week, when the CDS was asked about the loss of Indian jets during the operation, he told Bloomberg TV that the Indian Air Force learned from its initial tactical errors. 'The good part is that we were able to understand the tactical mistakes which we made; remedied, rectified and then implemented it again after two days. We flew all our jets again targeting at long range,' he said. However, he categorically denied Pakistan's claims of downing six Indian jets, terming them as "absolutely incorrect". India launched 'Operation Sindoor' in the wee hours of May 7, targeting nine terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The counterterror strike was India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that claimed the lives of 26 people. Pahalgam attack was profound cruelty: CDS Speaking about the Pahalgam attack, CDS Chauhan said the terror incident caused a huge "revulsion" and "hatred" in society. "What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims because all of them were killed with head shots in front of their families and their children and they were shot in the name of religion... which is kind of unacceptable to this modern world. This caused a huge revulsion in the society. There was a kind of hatred. It revived memories because this was not a single act of terror against India," the CDS said. VIDEO | Pune: Delivering special lecture on the topic 'Future Wars and Warfare' organised Savitribai Phule Pune University, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, says, "What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims because all of them were killed with… — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 3, 2025 He further said that India has been a victim of maximum terror acts, in which almost 20,000 people have been killed. "The emotion which was being evoked in the people of India was of revenge, retribution, and to get the perpetrator to justice. At the end of it, there was probably some sort of satisfaction, and anxiety (during Operation Sindoor)," CDS Chauhan said.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- General
- Time of India
CDS Chauhan clarifies position on losses during Op Sindoor: 'Results & how you act are important'
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan delivered a special lecture on 'Future Wars and Warfare' at Savitribai Phule University in Pune, Maharashtra. CDS Chauhan said that the operations folded in eight hours, and Pakistan had to call for a ceasefire during Operation Sindoor. Show more Show less
NDTV
03-06-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
"Not Losses, Outcomes Important": Chief Of Defence Staff On Op Sindoor
New Delhi: Losses suffered in a military conflict are not as important as the targeted outcome of that operation, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said Tuesday afternoon in a special lecture on 'Future Wars and Warfare' organised by the Savitribai Phule University in Pune. General Chauhan also said the focus of Operation Sindoor - India's military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, in which terrorists from Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba killed 26 people - was to stop the Pak deep state from launching further terror attacks against India. The Pahalgam attack, the General said, was an act of "profound cruelty... which is unacceptable in this modern world" and had led to "a kind of hatred (in India for Pak) ...a huge revulsion". "What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims... because all were killed with headshots in front of their families and their children, and they were shot in the name of religion. This caused a huge revulsion... it revived memories because India has been the victim of a maximum number of terror acts... almost 20,000 people have been killed."
Mint
27-05-2025
- General
- Mint
This women farmers' network envisions a feminist future for agriculture
At Dharmaveer auditorium at Pune's Savitribai Phule University two weeks ago, a few women from tribal communities talked about the produce they had on display, while some from Gujarat took photographs, and others explained to other visitors the use of headphones to get live translations of sessions. A lot was going on all at once at the three-day conference, from 7-9 May, which was attended by more than 500 women farmers from 17 states to mark the 10th anniversary of Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (Makaam), the women farmers' rights alliance. The women exuded confidence, camaraderie and wisdom but beneath it all ran the deeper issues, long-term challenges and the uphill journey they have been tackling for a decade. Also read: The march of women farmers Given that everywhere, on every piece of farmland, women do all kinds of jobs from sowing to harvesting, it may seem odd that there has to be a full-fledged movement to get them rights. But that's exactly what Makaam has been working on since April 2014—to have women farmers recognised as farmers and consequently, the access and rights that male farmers have. This includes land rights, fair wages, access to government schemes, and most importantly, protection from structural violence. Among the female workforce, more than 65% depend solely on agriculture and yet most are called 'workers" or 'labourers" and not recognised as farmers, according to data from the 2011 Census. This is despite the 2007 National Agriculture Policy, which says a farmer should be recognised as such irrespective of ownership of land, and which includes cultivators, forest-dependent people, tenant farmers, agri labourers and fisherfolk within the definition of a farmer. 'It is impossible for a woman in a far-flung village to express what she feels to even people around her. Suddenly we get a platform where we meet other women farmers who understand and empathise and are willing to do something about it. It is a big thing," says Suneeta Kashyap, a farmer from Naini village, near Ranikhet in Uttarakhand. The solidarity and sisterhood that Kashyap is referring to is one of the strengths of the network. Women have been surviving discrimination, exploitation and violence for decades in farms and homes, and one of the core focus areas for Makaam is combating structural violence. Seema Kulkarni, Makaam founding member and Maharashtra coordinator, says violence takes various forms when it comes to women farmers. 'If a relative abuses you on the field, is it domestic violence or harassment at work? Denial of land rights is a form of violence. Refusal to acknowledge their contribution and refusal to pay is structural violence." She points to the grim figures of suicides among women farmers, often counted as homemakers/housewives instead of as farmer suicides to explain how women's rights, labour and their very existence are constantly undermined. At the meeting in Pune, women from different states shared their stories and struggles of encountering violence and how they dealt with it. These discussions not only help build solidarity but also bring crucial issues to the public domain. In the past decade, the members have steadfastly focused on three principles: samvad (dialogue), sangharsh (resistance/struggle) and nirman (creation/production). Kavitha Kurunganti, one of the founding members, vividly remembers how it all began: 'In April 2014, around 22 of us met in Nagpur for two days to discuss how adequate attention and a space can be carved for women farmers." The figures she quotes from various sources are stark: women own only 11.8% of the agricultural land, according to 2021 government data, which has direct implications for access to loans, seeds and schemes. Women farmers get only 50-75% of men's wages, while doing more than 60% of agricultural jobs exclusively. 'Though there were strong movements for agroecology, women's rights, social equity and farmers' issues, rights of women farmers slipped through the cracks in each of these movements," says Kurunganti. Makaam was a result of that deliberation and the late Mina Swaminathan, a leading educationist and feminist, gave the group its name, which translates to 'destination" in Hindi. Fighting corporate control and patriarchy is at the heart of their efforts to create a more sustainable, alternative food production system. 'We are a loose but strong network, not a formal organisation," says Kulkarni. 'We rely on domestic funding, work through collective leadership, and stay grounded in the states and communities where women are organising," she says. The network has spread to 20-22 states though its most active members are in 10-12 states, including Maharashtra, Telangana and Punjab. This is not the first such group, but it is one of the first such women's farmers' alliances bringing together various other networks, campaigns, movements, collectives, organisations and individuals advocating for the right to livelihood for women farmers. Kurunganti explains that the platform has associations with around 200 organisations and individuals, such as the four-decade-old Deccan Development Society that works with nearly 5,000 Dalit and indigenous small women farmer groups. Such partnerships give them the strength of a grassroots network and flexible organisation. This model of collective leadership, free of hierarchy and rooted in democracy, could serve as a blueprint in a sector facing daily challenges from climate change and increasingly at the mercy of corporate and political interests. Agricultural expert Navsharan Singh, who has worked extensively in Punjab, says Makaam's simultaneous focus on advocacy and mobilisation is impactful. 'Experiences of women farmers have been intense and different… Makaam's work has led to foregrounding women in policy," says Singh. The policy interventions Makaam has been involved in include getting the Central government to release the data of land records with identifiable listings of women land owners under the 2008 digital modernisation programme. They have successfully intervened in including women farmers in implementation of the Forest Rights Act by registering their titles or joint titles and claims for CFR (community forest resource) rights. 'Exclusion in employment and land rights pushes women further into poverty and vulnerability," says Singh. Singh says the alliance's future challenges are many, given the serious implications of climate change and the policy direction towards corporatised farming. She points out that the Draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing that aims to reimagine the agricultural marketing ecosystem in India 'is yet another attempt to corporatise the sector", adding that 'the only way forward is resistance." Given the fact that neither the government nor society recognises women farmers, Makaam's work is critical. 'Along with cultural invisibilisation, women are also structurally pushed to the lowest end of agriculture," says social anthropologist and agrarian expert A.R. Vasavi. 'No policy is women-centric and much more recognition and encouragement is required." This aspect of advocating for policy that considers women's needs often came up during the panel discussions and in questions from the audience. 'We want to build stronger, membership-based forums for women farmers, so that this movement is not just about advocacy but about mass-based, organised power," says Kulkarni. 'Importantly we want to ensure that the future of India's agriculture is feminist, just, and sustainable—and that women are at the very centre of this transformation." Kashyap from Uttarakhand is one of the people who has seen in action the benefits of that mass-based power while negotiating prices for women farmers who are part of the local organisation Umang (the 16-year-old Umang is also a member of Makaam). 'At Umang, we accept any amount of produce from women farmers, small or large, and ensure that everyone gets a fair rate. Because of our efforts, not only do farmers from our village get a good rate, but even neighbouring villages check what we are doing and try to follow. When we go to meet officials through Makaam, we are able to put forward our case and are often successful." Umang has 2,500 women members and works in 100 villages in the Kumaon region. 'We have proven that we can work towards holistic development," she says, emphasising the power of sisterhood. 'Our success comes from nurturing relationships and creating networks and bonds to work together." Prachi Pinglay-Plumber is an independent journalist and professor of practice at Central Campus, CHRIST University, Bengaluru. Also read: A deep dive into rubber's living legacy
