Pakistan, April 25 -- There is something deeply telling about a country's highest-ranking military officer choosing a hotel lobby in Singapore - rather than his own parliament - to tell the world that his air force took losses in battle. No press conference on home soil. No address to the nation. No formal statement to India's elected representatives. Just a quietly uncomfortable exchange with foreign journalists on the sidelines of a security conference, while back home, the government was still beating the drum of total victory.

That is the reality of what General Anil Chauhan, India's Chief of Defence Staff, handed the world in late May 2025. And the tragedy is - it was not even his first time doing it.

Let that sink in for a moment....