What did we gain to begin with? We had captured Bangladesh and 1/2 of West Pakistan and we gave up all, we gave up our own land after capturing it as Bangladesh and Pakistan all are integral Part of India partitioned by British in 1947.
We didn’t gain anything from those wars so no territorial or psychological gains!
Giving up Haji Pir or not capturing Bangladesh were political decisions. Esp capturing Bangladesh is a non starter argument as we only(Gandhi/Nehru gang) accepted partition and gave away Bangladesh as East Pakistan. And the whole war was fought to liberate Bangladeshi Mzlmz, not to rejoin them with India. So there is no question of looking it as a loss, as it was not the objective. Millitarily, it was a win along with the 93,000 soldiers surrendering in front of the World.
Perception wars matter to people who have trust issues with reality. They then look for validation in public perceptions. The whole argument of Moral victory of Congis come from same idea.
Since we lost the perception battle the next day to Balakot, can the perception be recovered now, as we have Paki parliamentarians accepting in public that Bajwa s legs were shaking, and if they did not return Abhinandan, India would have hit back with full force. Ex IAF chief also said that all three forces were fully ready, hands on trigger. So shld we believe them or say, oh but we still lost the perception battle.