Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Nearly 10 weeks after India temporarily paused Operation Sindoor at the request of a terrified Pakistan, India’s Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan on Friday said the military operation is ongoing, and added the country is fully defense-prepared.
There are no runners-up in a war, and any military must be constantly alert and maintain a high degree of operational preparedness, the media quoted him as saying.
The CDS also emphasised the importance of learning about both ‘Shastra’ (warfare) and ‘Shaastra’ (knowledge systems).
Asserting that Operation Sindoor “continues,” he said the country’s military preparedness must remain at a “very high” level, round-the-clock, and throughout the year.
Speaking at a defence seminar in the national capital, General Chauhan said the armed forces in future will also need “information warriors, technology warriors and scholar warriors.” And, in a merging landscape of warfare, a future soldier will need to be a mix of all three “info, tech, and scholar warriors.”
The seminar on ‘Aerospace Power: Preserving India’s Sovereignty and Furthering National Interests’ was held under the aegis of the ‘No.4 Warfare and Aerospace Strategy Programme.’
Responding to Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killing 26 Hindu-only tourists at Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, India launched the highly successful Operation Sindoor on May 7 and decimated multiple terror and air force infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It paused the operation only when the panicked Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) in Islamabad requested his counterpart in New Delhi to stop cross-border attacks.
Earlier, Pakistan also tried to launch offensives against India but failed miserably. Not a glass broke in India, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval remarked recently.
General Chauhan emphasized the urgent need for indigenous drone and anti-drone systems. Highlighting lessons from Operation Sindoor, he warned that relying on foreign technology weakens national preparedness and limits production.
He urged to focus on both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to strengthen India’s defence against evolving aerial threats.
The military conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours halted after they reached an understanding on the evening of May 10.
US President Donald Trump has since claimed more than two dozen times—despite India stoutly denying it—that he used trade as a weapon to force the two countries to accept a ‘ceasefire.’