Indians dream of controlling the skies in South Asia is now in tatters. Modi was led to believe that the Rafales were an air superiority fighter, the best in the world and could take down all Chinese aircraft, including the 5th generation J20s easily. The Indians even bragged that one Rafale could take down 5 J20s in a fight. This could be the reason why Modi did not mind paying crazily for the Rafales at nearly US$200m each, much more than the US$100m for an American F35. The F35 is ranked several rungs below the Rafales. Only the American F22s are ranked above the Rafales.
After the acquisition of the Rafales, Modi really thought that the Indian Air Force is now better than the PLAAF, and India would rule the sky. He was so eager to prove this newly acquired Indian might in the sky, a staged false flag incident was conducted leading to the Indian Pakistan 4 Day War. Operation Sindoor was India's graduating party into the world of military power. Thrashing Pakistan's small air force was easy and a show of force, to teach the Chinese a lesson with India's world best Rafale fighters.
Cannot imagine how bad Modi took it when at least 3 Rafales were taken down within hours of the war. Modi paid a ransom just to buy the Rafales, and French took full advantage of it, knowing how badly the Indians wanted the Rafales and sold them at double the price of a F35.
With the Rafales now in the dust, India has to look for a better fighter jet to take on China's J10 and the more superior J35 and J20. Where on earth is India going to find such a machine? The supposedly world best, ranked number one F22 is now out of production, as good as scrapped by the Americans. And with the F22 out of the way, the Americans are painting the F35s as the new world best fighters. Only the brain dead would believe in this claim. Modi, after learning a painful lesson from the Rafale fiasco, would be much wiser and would not be duped again. But Trump tried to offer the F35 to Modi, but with many conditions, as good as saying no.
The F35 is looking like a non starter to Modi. And there is no other better aircraft available in the market to take on the J10. What to do? Maybe wait for the aliens to come visiting and offer an alien space ship to better the J10. A more practical way is of go to Xi and ask to buy the J10, at least to be on par with Pakistan's J10. And with Indian pilots, supposedly better trained than the Pakistanis, they would be one up against the Pakistanis using the same J10s. But wait a minute. Pakistan has upgraded to J35, a much more superior twin engine fighter that is many times more superior than the single engine F35. The Americans may still crow about the F35 as world best, but no one is going to believe in this joke. Several F35s had already be shot down by Iran to prove that it is not worthy of its claim, like the Rafales.
J10 is the first buy for India, but to match Pakistan, India must also look to buying the J35s. Otherwise, the Indian Air Force would look like a sick cat and the Indian pilots would be afraid to take to the sky to face the J10s. India has no choice, only China has better aircraft than the J10.