Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to chair a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers on June 4 at 4:30 pm, according to sources. This will be the first such meeting since India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory military campaign, was initiated following the deadly attack and involved coordinated strikes on nine terror camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). As part of the operation, Indian forces also responded to all subsequent offensives launched by Pakistan. Speaking at a public gathering in West Bengal, Prime Minister Modi confirmed that Operation Sindoor is still underway. He emphasised that the government has established a "new normal" in India’s approach to dealing with terrorism.
In the meantime, the Opposition has stepped up its demand for a special session of Parliament to deliberate on both the Pahalgam carnage and the ongoing military operation. Their call gained momentum after Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan acknowledged, during a visit to Singapore, that India had made certain "mistakes" during the early stages of Operation Sindoor. However, he assured that these errors were promptly corrected.
In a significant revelation, General Chauhan also admitted— for the first time— that India lost an unspecified number of jets during the course of the operation. In an interview with Bloomberg, conducted on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, he dismissed claims by the Pakistani Prime Minister that six Indian jets, including four Rafales, were shot down.
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"That is absolutely incorrect," General Chauhan stated. He added, "What is important is not the number of jets lost, but why they were lost. Understanding the reasons and identifying the mistakes is more critical than counting the aircraft. Numbers are not important."
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge escalated the Opposition’s attack on the government, urging it to follow Pakistan’s lead and convene a special parliamentary session to discuss Operation Sindoor. He accused the Modi-led government of “misleading the nation” following General Chauhan’s public admission of operational setbacks.
Kharge further criticised the Prime Minister for remaining silent on former US President Donald Trump’s claims of brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Instead of addressing the matter, Kharge alleged, Modi was busy with his election campaign and taking personal credit for the bravery of India’s armed forces.
Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he played a key role in facilitating the ceasefire, claiming that the U.S. used trade and tariff leverage to pressure both India and Pakistan into halting hostilities. India, however, has strongly denied these assertions, calling them “false” and asserting that the ceasefire was a sovereign decision based on strategic and security considerations.
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