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At a seminar in Indonesia, Captain Shiv Kumar, the Defense attaché of the Indian Navy, spoke about Operation Sindoor. Due to controversy surrounding his remark, the Indian Embassy in Indonesia issued a press release seeking clarification.
During this, false information regarding Captain Shiv Kumar’s statement is being circulating on social media. Two such claims pertaining to his statement and the seminar are being fact-checked by the Times Headlines team.
Claim – 1
A user on X posted a claim with caption, “I agree we have lost some aircraft. ~~ Captain (IN) Shiv Kumar. Yeah I agree too. At least 3 aircraft so far have been lost. 1. Rafale that crashed in Bathinda 2. Mig-29 that crashed in Ramban area 3. Mirage-2000 that crashed landed in Wuyan near Pampore. How or why they crashed……….well!!’
Fact Check
The Times Headlines team conducted a Google search and discovered numerous media reports about captain Shiv Kumar’s statement from sites like Aaj Tak and News-18 Hindi. These reports make no mention of him discussing the loss of the Sukhoi, Mirage, or Rafale jets. They do not mention, though, that he discussed the loss of a few planes. We also located the seminar’s complete video. Captain Shiv Kumar makes no mention of India losing its Rafale, Sukhoi, or Mirage jets in the video. He was actually addressing assertions made by Tommy Tamtomo, another panelist, that India had lost a number of aircraft.
Claim – 2
A presentation slide of a seminar conducted in Indonesia has been posted by another user. It asserts, “Seminar of Indonesian Air Force on India-Pakistan conflict. The disgraceful war casualties of India: 3 Rafale jets were destroyed (~8.3 point fleet percentage), MiG-29 UPG: 1 was destroyed, Su-30MKI: 1 was destroyed, DRDO tactical drone: 1 was destroyed (the drone fleet is ~ 2 point), S-400: 2 launchers destroyed (the loss was 10 at one location)”
Fact Check
we discovered during the investigation that the widely circulated slide was actually taken from panelist Tommy Tamtomo’s presentation. Tommy Tamtomo is the Vice Chairman of the Indonesia Center of Air Power Studies. He explicitly states in his speech that the figure he used on his slide was based on media reports, so it is not official. He even said during his presentation that it is unlikely that a Rafale was shot down. During his presentation, Captain Shiv Kumar, who traveled from India to attend the seminar, flatly rejected Tamtomo’s assertion twice. Furthermore, no official figures regarding Indian military casualties in the conflict with Pakistan have been made public.
Conclusion
Thus, Times Headlines fact check unequivocally demonstrates the deceptive nature of the circulating claims. Rafale, Sukhoi, and Mirage fighter Jet decommissioning was not mentioned by Indian Navy Captain Shiv Kumar. Furthermore, there is no official confirmation from any source regarding the destruction of three Rafales, one MiG, one Sukhoi, and an S-400 system.