'I Lied To My Chief': Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor's Extraordinary Op Sindoor Revelation
"I lied to my chief." Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor (R), former Vice Chief IAF, makes an extraordinary admission about one of the most tense moments during Operation Sindoor.
Kapoor reveals that he deliberately gave the Air Force Chief a delayed timeline for aircraft getting airborne, knowing that the actual mission was still about 15 minutes away. His calculation: the pilots had been waiting with their weapons loaded for a long time, and aborting the mission at that stage could have meant losing a critical operational opportunity.
He eventually confessed to the Chief - in front of the Defence Minister - that he had "lied" about the timeline.
The conversation offers a rare glimpse into the human judgement, pressure and split-second decision-making behind military operations, and why commanders sometimes have to balance strict timelines against the larger operational objective.
