'India has responsibilities both in continental & maritime domains'

Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said the integrated theatre command plan he has proposed to the government takes into consideration India’s strategic challenges on land and opportunities in water. In an interview with Satarupa Bhattacharjya in New Delhi on May 21, the CDS also spoke about Operation Sindoor, the India-China border and India’s defence budget. Edited excerpts:

- Satarupa Bhattacharjya

What are your major reflections on Operation Sindoor one year later?

Militarily, we can say that it was different from all the wars that India has fought until now, very unique in its own self. When I look back and think why we won, we won not (only) because we were able to carry out long-range precision strikes. That is, of course, one of the reasons but we had better situational awareness about what’s happening than Pakistan. We were immediately aware about where our strikes were taking place, what the effects of those strikes were. We were also aware of what the adversary was undertaking and whether he was even able to achieve something or not. That helped us with any kind of decision-making.

The Pakistan side was completely blind, not only during those days when they lost this offensive on the 10th (May 10, 2025, when the ceasefire was declared), but even after three-four days. They were not sure as to what they’ve been able to do. Because of this, we were able to control the escalation — that is one important thing.

We were able to choose the timing of ceasing hostilities when we were on top. I knew when they (Pakistan) first spoke (via the military hotline) at 9:30 am (on May 10) that, okay they wanted to talk, but we continued so that the margin of victory was absolute, and it also helped us to terminate the conflict when we wanted.

Is India better equipped to handle asymmetric warfare in general but with Pakistan in particular?