Monitoring Desk: Gautama Buddha said that three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. The same phrase is also attributed to Stoicism philosophy, and the collective wisdom of the subcontinent added “love” to the list. Truth, like celestial bodies, is a powerful force that will eventually become visible and undeniable; therefore, trying to hide the truth is futile, and the truth will always find a way to surface, as was the case with the Indo-Pak battle and the reality that Pakistan downed six Indian fighter jets.
In a seminar titled “Analysis of the Pakistan–India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies” that was conducted on the India-Pak air battle, India’s Defence Attache (DA) to Indonesia, Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar, acknowledged the fact that India “did lose some aircraft.”
In a 35-minute presentation made at the seminar, Captain Shiv Kumar conceded, stating:
I “may not agree (with an earlier Indonesian speaker’s claim) that we (Indian) lost so many aircraft, but I do agree we did lose some aircraft.”
Captain Shiv Kumar was of the view that IAF fighter jets were operating under strict political orders, and this self-imposed limitation by the government was intended to prevent the escalation of conflict in a nuclear environment. It was possibly based on the premise that the Pakistan military would not target Indian fighter aircraft flying in the Indian airspace, when, according to Shiv Kumar, India was not hitting any Pakistani military targets.
