KARACHI: Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Indian National Congress party, has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had “misled the nation”, amid a furore about the now-acknowledged aircraft losses to Pakistan during the recent conflict, Dawn.com reported.

“The Modi govt has misled the nation. The fog of war is now clearing,” Kharge wrote in a post on X.

The remarks come a day after India’s top general confirmed that his country’s fighter jets were downed by Pakistan but did not specify a number.

That admission followed a statement by Subrahmanyam Swamy, a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but a staunch critic of the Indian premier, that Pakistan had downed five Indian planes.

He said that in the wake of the remarks made by India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan in Singapore during an interview, there were some very important questions which needed to be asked.

“These can only be asked if a Special Session of the Parliament is immediately convened,” he said.

“The Congress party demands a comprehensive review of defence preparedness by an independent expert committee, on the lines of the Kargil review committee,” he added.

Congress leader and Telangana Minister Uttam Reddy separately demanded transparency from the Indian government to reveal the extent of losses, Deccan Herald reported.

“The fact that the fighter aircraft were downed is something that the government needs to stop denying. The CDS himself mentioned that.

“Earlier Air Marshal Bharti had mentioned it indirectly in his briefing along with the DGMO,” Reddy, himself a former air force pilot, was quoted as having said.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2025