New Delhi, May 19, 2025 (ANI): In this edition of the ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash, Lieutenant General D’Cunha, who is the Director General of Army Air Defence, reacted to Leader of Opposition Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s claims on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Operation Sindoor. Rahul Gandhi in a recent post on X, alleged wrongdoing by the government, stating: "Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that the GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?"
00:00Rahul Gandhi tweeted, informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime.
00:04Does the Indian defence mechanism ever tell the adversary, tell the enemy that this is what we are going to strike?
00:12For any conflict to be successful, surprise is the greatest element.
00:18We got hundred terrorists, if not more, in their respective places where the camps were.
00:26The matter of surprise was at its highest.
00:28One controversy which happened over the weekend, now that I have you, I'll give it back to you soon.
00:34Now that I have you here, I need to know about this because this broke out yesterday.
00:38One is about the mission statement.
00:40What were we intending to do?
00:42What targets did we want?
00:43And then this happened, sir, which was Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, tweeted,
00:52informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime.
00:55EAM, which is External Affairs Minister Jai Shankar, he's publicly admitted, he said, that the government of India did it.
01:02Who authorized it?
01:03Now he put this tweet out to which, which was a reaction to Mr. Jai Shankar, the External Affairs Minister, in case for foreign audiences who don't.
01:13At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan saying, we are striking at terrorist infrastructure.
01:20We are not striking at the military.
01:22So the military has an option of standing out and not interfering in this process.
01:27They chose not to take that good advice.
01:30Now, here what has happened is what the External Affairs Minister was saying at the start of the operation did not mean that before the operation.
01:38This was after we hit the first targets, which was the terrorist camp.
01:42And then it was they were informed.
01:44Now, obviously, Mr. Gandhi is interpreting at the start of the campaign is what he meant was that at Operation Sindhoor before it was launched.
01:55Right.
01:56And then, you know, the government put out the DGMO who had in his being well aware and familiar with the congenital and impulsive nature of our adversary.
02:07And even though we did attempt to reach out and communicate our compulsions to strike at the heart of terror to my counterpart in the immediate wake of Operation Sindhoor,
02:22the request was brusquely turned out, turned down, I'm sorry, with an intimation that a severe response was inevitable and in the offing.
02:33So, basically, we were all at these briefings and press conferences, Ajit was there too.
02:47So, what had happened was that the DGMO briefing, the other briefings, everybody told us the sequence, which is that the strikes happened on the terror targets.
03:00Subsequently, the Indian defense told their DGMO that this is what we're doing.
03:07DGMO did not respond, said, do you want to talk?
03:09Do you want to?
03:10DGMO did not respond and said instead that we'll be striking back.
03:14They struck back, after which we struck the second day, which was we took out the air bases and the air defense, whatever they had, all the targets that were there.
03:23This was the sequence.
03:24But somewhere, the confusion occurs is when, at what point.
03:30Now, what is the SOP out here?
03:33Does the Indian defense mechanism ever tell the adversary, tell the enemy that this is what we're going to strike?
03:42Does that happen?
03:43I think that for any conflict to be successful, surprise is the greatest element.
03:51And the very fact that, you know, we got 100 terrorists, if not more, in their respective places where the camps were, I mean, that itself gives you an answer.
04:07If this was so clearly enunciated before that I'm coming and I'm going to target your terrorist camps, then they would have been empty.
04:16Like, it had happened, what they claim happened in Balakor.
04:19So, the very fact that we got big names, I mean, the very fact that we got big names in the terrorist, park terrorist hierarchy, only tells you that the matter of surprise was at its highest.
04:33And I think that's the takeaway, that, you know, if there was any pre-information and also telling somebody that you're coming for the terrorist camps, then they would have been empty.
