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Deccan Herald
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
India in a 'war-like' situation, govt has steely resolve, says ex-diplomat Bambawale
Bambawale was speaking at a panel discussion on the topic, 'Operation Sindoor', organised by Pune International Centre (PIC) on Friday.
Hindustan Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
India in a 'war-like' situation, govt has steely resolve, says ex-diplomat Bambawale
Pune, Former High Commissioner to Pakistan, Gautam Bambawale, has described the military conflict between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor as a "war-like situation", asserting that the Central government has a "steely resolve" and a clear sense of its objectives. Bambawale was speaking at a panel discussion on the topic, 'Operation Sindoor', organised by Pune International Centre on Friday. "I would like to describe the current situation as a 'war-like situation'. When I say a war-like situation, I mean to say that we are at the edge of getting into a full-scale war, but we are not yet there," he said. The former Indian ambassador to China said three elements are important for a nation in a war-like situation. "First is — the government. As we know, for the last 10 to 12 years, this government has had a steely resolve. They know what their objectives are, they know what they want to do and what they want to target. The second element is the Armed Forces. We know that the Indian Armed Forces are capable of and have seen that in the last few days. The armed forces also have a steely resolve. They know how to take on the targets and achieve the goals set by the political leadership and their leadership," Bambawale said. He said the third element was the 'people of the country'. "In any war-like situation, not all things go in one way or against the enemy. There are setbacks, and we could also be targeted, the way people living in the border areas like Poonch were targeted by Pakistan. If we get into that kind of situation, the people of the country should show steely resolve. They should not lose their focus. This is the fight for justice against terrorism and against perpetrators of terrorism and those who are funding and supporting them," he said. Other panellists at the discussion included Lt Gen V G Patankar , Col. Vinayak Bhat, Air Marshal Dipendu Choudhury , and Captain D K Sharma . Major General Nitin Gadkari , the director of PIC, moderated the panel.
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Operation Sindoor: Drones from Turkey, China's role; panel discusses various aspects of Indo-Pak standoff
As Operation Sindoor unfolded, a question that often came up was about the involvement of China and other foreign powers in the conflict between India and Pakistan. At the Pune International Centre on Friday evening, a distinguished panel discussed various aspects of Operation Sindoor and China, inevitably, came up. 'My own feeling is that China will continue to use Pakistan as their proxy. In fact, Pakistan is almost a vassal state of China and gets goodies like JF-17 jets and the China-Pakistan economic corridor. But, China will avoid getting directly involved with us. At this stage, even the Chinese would not like a setback to their economy by getting involved in even a limited war along the Line of Actual Control with us. They are not going to get involved in a hurry unless it becomes apparent that Pakistan is collapsing or is imploding,' said Lt Gen Vinayak Patankar (retd). The audience heard how the Chinese air force has progressed so rapidly that it has got the US worried. The US Chief of Staff has remarked that, by 2030, the Chinese air force will be bigger than the US Air Force. Apart from Lt Gen Patankar, the participants at the discussion were Gautam Bambawale, the former High Commissioner to Pakistan and Ambassador to Bhutan and China, Air Marshal Diptendu Choudhury, Captain D K Sharma, former spokesperson of the Navy, Col Vinayak Bhat, a satellite imagery specialist, and Maj Gen Nitin Gadkari, Director of the Pune International Centre. All the panelists have retired from the services. The conversation touched upon the terrorists, the public morale in India and Pakistan and the assessment of the imageries before and after the Indian missile strikes in Pakistan. The packed hall at PIC for the panel discussion had, only the evening before, watched on television as drones and missiles from Pakistan had targeted Indian cities and were neutralised. While giving details about such operations, the panel reflected on what it meant that the drones were imported from Turkey. 'The government of India has had its formal briefing for today and one of the things which were highlighted was that the drones which were used last night by the Pakistanis to target 23 cities in India were all Turkish made. That aspect has now come to the fore. I think it will lead to a deterioration in India-Turkey relations,' Bambawale said. The question about the role of Bangladesh came at the very end of the session from a member of the audience, Vasanta Ramaswamy. 'Bangladesh is becoming close to Pakistan,' she said. Bambawale admitted that there has been a change in the people running Bangladesh and they were not as friendly to India as previous governments 'but India has a lot of activity in Bangladesh, such as developmental activity'. 'I have a feeling that the relation with Bangladesh will turn full circle and come back to a situation that we are happy with, just as it has done with the Maldives,' he said. Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More
