Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi has taken a direct jab at Pakistan’s claim of success in the May clashes with India, following Operation Sindoor. Speaking at IIT Madras, he underlined the importance of shaping narratives in conflict.
“If you ask a Pakistani whether you lost or won, he’d say, ‘My chief has become a field marshal. We must have won, that’s why he’s become a field marshal,'” he said, referring to Pakistan’s promotion of its army chief, Asim Munir, to a five-star general and field marshal.
‘Free Hand’ from the Government General Dwivedi said the central government’s decision to give the armed forces complete operational freedom was key to the mission’s success. He recalled that on 23 April, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack killed 26 people, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the service chiefs, “Enough is enough.”
“This is the first time that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, ‘Enough is enough.’ All three chiefs were very clear that something had to be done. The free hand was given ‘you decide what is to be done.’ That is the kind of confidence, political direction, and political clarity we saw for the first time,” he said.
“That is what raises your morale. That is how it helped our army commanders-in-chief to be on the ground and act as per their wisdom,” he added.
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, at the HAL Management Academy in Bengaluru, also credited the government’s stance. “A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There was very clear political will and very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us… If there were any constraints, they were self-made. The forces decided what the rules of engagement would be. We decided how we wanted to control the escalation. We had full freedom to plan and execute,” he said.
Planning and execution in the ‘Grey Zone’ General Dwivedi revealed that planning began on 23 April, and by 25 April the Northern Command had struck seven of nine high-value targets, eliminating several militants.
He described the operation as “playing chess” in a “grey zone” — unpredictable and short of full-scale conventional warfare. “In Op Sindoor, what we did, we playe
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