'Why will I apologise': Prithviraj Chavan maintains stand on Operation Sindoor remark

The former Maharashtra CM was addressing a press conference in Pune when he made the controversial remarks.

After he questioned the success of 'Operation Sindoor', former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday refused to apologise for his remark.

"Why will I apologise? It is out of the question. The Constitution gives me the right to ask questions..." Chavan told ANI.

Chavan  stirred a controversy with his remarks claiming that India was defeated on the first day of Operation Sindoor and Indian aircrafts were shot down during the four-day conflict.

The former Maharashtra CM was addressing a press conference in Pune when he made the controversial remarks. He also claimed that the "Air Force was completely grounded, and not a single aircraft flew". According to him, if any aircraft had taken off from Gwalior, Bathinda, or Sirsa, "there was a high probability of being shot down by Pakistan, which is why the Air Force was fully grounded".

He also questioned the need to maintain large military forces, saying that wars would be fought in the air.

"Recently, we saw during Operation Sindoor, there was not even a one-kilometre movement of the military. Whatever happened over two or three days was only an aerial war and missile warfare. In the future, too, wars will be fought in the same way. In such a situation, do we really need to maintain an army of 12 lakh soldiers, or can we make they do some other work?" he was quoted as saying by ANI.]

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla criticised Chavan's "shocking controversial statements".  "Congress hates Indian Armed Forces. Sena ka apman is Congress ki pehchan (Insulting the army is Congress's identity)," he posted on X.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which left 26 people dead. The Indian armed forces had targeted terror infrastructure belonging to outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.