'If you ask a Pakistani...': Army Chief Dwivedi mocks Pakistan’s 'victory' claim, citing Field Marshal promotion

Army Chief mocks Islamabad’s victory claim after Op Sindoor

Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Saturday took a pointed dig at Pakistan's claims of victory following the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7.

He referenced the elevation of Pakistan’s General Asim Munir to the rank of Field Marshal earlier in May, using it to highlight how Islamabad has attempted to shape the narrative around the operation, implicitly mocking its portrayal of success.

General Dwivedi said a Pakistani measures the result of the India-Pak conflict by Munir's promotion to the Field Marshal rank.

“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,'" Dwivedi said while speaking at an event held in IIT Madras.

"This is how you can influence the population...it is the domestic population, adversaries population and the neutral population... can rising powers be accomadated, that's the question you have to ask and you will get the answer yourself," the Army chief said, adding that India made in-roads to take control of the narrative management system through use of social media.

Dwivedi also praised the Centre for giving the armed forces a “free hand" to carry out 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.

He added, “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."