NEW DELHI: Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday took a swipe at Pakistan over its claim of winning the May clashes with India following Operation Sindoor.While speaking at IIT Madras, Dwivedi said that narrative management plays a key role in war. “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.Dwivedi was referring to the Pakistan government’s move to promote its Army chief, Asim Munir, to a five-star general and field marshal.He also claimed that the Centre gave a “free hand” to the armed forces to execute Operation Sindoor.“What happened on 22 April in Pahalgam shocked the nation. On the 23rd, the next day itself, we all sat down. 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,” Dwivedi 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.Earlier, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh also attributed the success of Operation Sindoor to the “political will” of the central government, asserting that the Indian Armed Forces carried out the mission without any external constraints.“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,” Singh said at an event at the HAL Management Academy in Bengaluru.India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. The armed forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, eliminating over 100 terrorists linked to groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling, attempted drone strikes, and air defence measures. India’s counterstrikes damaged radar installations, communication hubs, and airfields across 11 Pakistani bases, including the Nur Khan air base.
