Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday asserted that “losses are not important, but outcomes are” days after he admitted to India losing a few fighter jets during Operation Sindoor. While speaking at a special lecture on 'Future Wars and Warfare' organised by the Savitribai Phule University in Pune, he claimed that “professional military forces are not affected by setbacks and losses.”
General Chauhan cited the example of a cricket match stating that “a team is there to win by any means, and there is no question about how many wickets.”
"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," he said.
“Adaptability is an important constituent of a very professional force. You should be able to understand what went wrong, need to rectify your mistake and go again. You cannot sit down in fear,” he added further.
The General had confirmed India's losses during Operation Sindoor for the first time at an event in Singapore last week. While speaking to Bloomberg TV, he had said that, "What is important is not the jet being (shot) down, but why they were downed. Why were they (shot) down, what mistakes were made - those are important.”
He highlighted that the motive of the attack was to halt any further cross-border terrorism on Indian soil. “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,” he said.
