After air force failure, Rajnath says Indian Navy to lead response

NEW DELHI: India will use the firepower of its navy in response to any future aggression by Pakistan, India Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday, weeks after the fiercest fighting in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, reports Reuters.

Relations between India and Pakistan are tense after four days of fighting this month, which involved fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery before a ceasefire was announced.

“If Pakistan resorts to anything evil or unethical, it will, this time, face the firepower and ire of the Indian Navy,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the coast of the western Indian state of Goa.

Rajnath said ‘Operation Sindoor’, under which India launched the strikes on Pakistan, was paused, but not yet over.

“We stopped our military actions on our own terms. Our forces had not even started showing their might,” he said.

The Indian Navy has said it deployed its carrier battle group, submarines and other aviation assets in the northern Arabian Sea within 96 hours of the April 22 attack in Pahalgam.

A spokesperson for Pakistan’s military referred Reuters to a May 12 statement, which said there would be a “comprehensive and decisive” response whenever Pakistan’s sovereignty was “threatened and territorial integrity violated”.

Following a short four-day war, a ceasefire took effect on May 10 and a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday that both countries were close to reducing their troop build-up along their border to pre-conflict levels.

SPECTACULAR FAILURE

The latest remarks by Singh came, as entire world witnessed a spectacular failure of India’s air force against Pakistan. It lost at least six aircraft, including the prized Rafale jets.

Read more: No more the best friend: India targets Trump after May 10 debacle

It just shattered the myth that India is global power.

However, it shouldn’t be a surprise given the fact that the Indian themselves have been admitting their air force’s shortcomings – ranging from the shortage of pilots and fighter jets to defence equipment utilisation.

The problem is that India announced itself as a global power without fulfilling the requirements. Even the “huge economy” is a façade given that India is home to 1.3 billion people, with a middle class of just 400 million. How to adjust the remaining 900 million is a question that seemingly doesn’t concerns Prime Minister Modi.

It is the reason why Rajnath is now diverting the Indian people’s attention to all the things other than his air force