Okay, I will talk facts with you.
- Did we dominate the Skirmish ? - What is meant by to dominate ? If a 4x CAP stopping a combined strike package of 24x PAF jets from ingressing inside India and hold them off for ~5 minutes (which is a lot of time in air combat terminology) for reinforcements to arrive, then yes we did.
- Mig-21 Shot Down, Abhinandan Captured - Abhinandan disobeyed SOP and went for the kill in YOLO style, his wingman retreated. Blunder ? Yes.
- Friendly Fire of Mi-17, Blunder ? Yes.
- Was the Operation a success ? Let's look at the military objectives.
- Balakot Airstrike -> Success, message sent.
- Next day PAF strike package thwarted from ingression & achieving target -> Success.
- Counter-Argument : We lost because we had +1 aircraft lost than Pakistan. To that, I will say military victories are counted on objectives, not casaulties. Soviet Union defeated Germany in WW2. What were the casaulty numbers for Soviet Union and Germany ?
All said & done & this is an argument I've had on another forum & pretty much an in depth one too , I seem old enough to recall , the same NDA in their previous Avatar also organised detailed press briefings in 1999 during the Kargil war with MEA , MoD & Defence personnel present in full force & a high profile delegation at that at those PCs where we were told of areas & heights like Mushkoh , Drass , Tiger Hill etc & given daily briefings about the state of affairs & progress made , something that's now part of the memory & lexicon of those who've lived through those days .
Why did the people have to know of all this & remember this was the pre SM but 24x7 News Channel era ? Yet information was disseminated to the extent possible. All the present dispensation had to do was follow the template. They did everything but that which eventually blew up on their faces leaving them with no other retort but - trust me bros failing which everyone who doubted their version was dubbed an anti national.
Whichever way it is spun , that was an information war we lost . It's like seizing defeat from the jaws of victory. The non retaliation to PAFs aggression the next day was another nail in the coffin.