Monthly Archives: August 2018

PTI

Ahmedabad, May 28

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said India faces a “very complicated challenge” from China, and the Narendra Modi government has taken steps to ensure no attempts are made to change the status quo in the border areas unilaterally.

This challenge was “very visible” in border areas in the last three years, Jaishankar said on Saturday, adding that both the countries have to find an equilibrium in relationship, but it cannot be on the terms of the other party.

If peace and tranquillity between the two nations is disturbed, their relationship will not remain unaffected, the minister said, delivering a talk on ‘Modi’s India: A Rising Power’ at the Anant National University here.

“When I talk about big powers, of course we have a particular challenge from China. That challenge is a very complicated challenge, but in the last three years it has been particularly visible in the border areas,” Jaishankar said, apparently referring to China’s incursions in eastern Ladakh.

“There are clearly responses that are required, and those responses have been undertaken by the government. And a lot of it to ensure that no attempt is made to unilaterally change the status quo in the border areas,” he said.

The two countries will have to find some kind of equilibrium, and all the past governments in their own ways tried to find a balance, the External Affairs Minister said.

“But that balance cannot be on the terms of the other party. Then it is not a balance. There has to be something mutual,” he said.

Mutual respect, sensitivity and interest have to be the basis of the relationship, Jaishankar said.

“How can we get along long term if you don’t respect me, if you are not sensitive to my concerns, if you ignore my interest?” he said, adding that if India sees respect, sensitivity and recognition, it can think of a better relationship with China.

“But if we do not, I think we need to stand up for our rights, and we need to be firm in asserting opposition. And that, unfortunately, currently is the situation,” he said.

Talking about India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jaishankar stressed on the strengthening of relationship with immediate and extended neighbouring countries.

Neighbours like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, which have always been close to India, are today linked with us through roads, railway, waterways and electricity grid connections, he said.

“The linkage and perception today of India in the neighbourhood has changed, and nothing illustrated that more dramatically than what happened to Sri Lanka last year when it went through a very deep economic crisis,” he said.

“And we have actually stepped forward in a way in which we ourselves never have before. What we have done for Sri Lanka is bigger than what the IMF has done for Sri Lanka,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat also said the Modi government is trying to expand the neighbourhood.

“When I speak of the neighbourhood, I think a big change of our Indo-Pacific…strategically, what happens there concerns us very much. At the same time, there are other big changes happening, changes which include the rise of China, which includes, in a way, how the US has become much more cautious about its own commitments,” he said.

The Quad countries are today discussing maritime collaboration, infrastructure connectivity, 5G and vaccines, among other issues. India is also interacting with a group of countries to its West, such as Israel, United States and United Arab Emirates, Jaishankar said.

“Under PM Modi, we are not thinking just of tomorrow, we are not even thinking of the next term. We are thinking really beyond. And in many ways, without exaggerations, we are today laying the foundation of what is the global footprint,” he said.

The rise of India has a very special significance in the world as the only comparable rise was that of China, Jaishankar said.

IANS

Toronto, May 28

The government in Canada’s Saskatchewan province has granted Sikh motorcyclists a temporary exemption from wearing helmets during special events like charity rides.

The move comes after the Legendary Sikh Riders, a motorcycle group based out of British Columbia province, had asked Saskatchewan to consider a change to allow them to ride across Canada to raise money for charitable causes.

While there are permanent, blanket helmet exemptions for religious reasons in provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, Saskatchewan, law requires all motorcyclists to wear helmets when operating a motorcycle on public roads.

“Helmets are an essential piece of safety equipment for motorcyclists,” Don Morgan, Minister Responsible for SGI, said.

The amendments to the Vehicle Equipment Regulations will be temporary and will not grant blanket exemption for all members of the Sikh religion to ride motorcycles without a helmet, according to a media release by the Saskatchewan government.

“While we have no plans to introduce a blanket exemption to motorcycle helmet laws, our government sees this provision for temporary exemptions as a fair compromise that will enable future charity fundraisers to proceed,” Morgan said.

The exemptions will have to be approved by the minister responsible for Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) and would be limited to members of the Sikh community, who wear turban as an expression of their faith and are unable to wear helmets.

Any exemption granted would not apply to passengers or riders who are still learners or in their home province’s graduated driver licensing programme.

PTI

Imphal, May 22

In fresh violence in Manipur, two houses were torched by a mob in Imphal East district after two armed miscreants forced people to shut their shops on Monday afternoon, police officials said.

However, no casualty was reported due to the arson.

The mob also beat up one of the miscreants while the other managed to flee. The two were taken into custody.

Armymen deployed in the area who rushed to the scene used force and fired teargas shells to disperse the mob resulting in minor injuries to a few people.

Locals protested the incident by burning tyres on the road.

Following the incident, curfew hours in Imphal East district which had earlier been relaxed were tightened.  

  NN

A new Parliament Building is being inaugurated on Sunday 28 May 2023 and since every action in our country becomes ‘political’, we have been in the midst of heated discussions, mostly unhealthy, about the event. Before looking at the event in a balanced manner and avoiding any partisanship, which in any case does not come easily to a military mind like mine, let me say a few words about the importance of Parliament in a nation that adopted Parliamentary Democracy as its form of government, even before it gained its Independence on 15 August 1947 from its colonial masters. Also Read – Can A State Declare a Film Tax Free? The Constituent Assembly gave it permanence and of paramount importance when the Constitution of India formally adopted it on 26 Jan 1950, with the resounding commencement, meant to ring in the ears of all citizens of India, irrespective of caste, creed or religion the opening words: “We the People…..”. Our Constitution touches the heart of every citizen of our country, but perhaps it is the Indian Military for which it is most sacrosanct. We, all ranks of the Army, Navy and Air Force comprising the military, are the most important defenders of our Constitution, for which we have in the past, and will do so today and in the future, give even the ultimate sacrifice of our lives. We do so shunning all aspects of politics, for that is our creed. Also Read – Erdogan Set For A ‘Legacy Term’, West Worried Those who have strayed from this sacred path lately, for a variety of reasons, need to be brought around to the ‘straight and narrow’ path laid down for us by our predecessors, whose personalities, sterling leadership qualities and moral upbringing have left indelible marks on the military psyche. For those who have strayed, especially in recent years, my appeal is to revert back or in political parlance of the day, do a real “Ghar Wapsi”, devoid of religious connotations of any form. Also Read – Smelting Manipur But I am straying, for this piece is about the soul of our Parliament, which must be inviolable in both ‘mind and matter’. Over our journey of Independence of 75 years, while the ‘bricks and mortar’ of the building have held, it has been shaken from within because our elected leaders and their advisers have succumbed, to put it mildly, to ‘political expediency’, forgetting their core tasks for which they were elected. This has eclipsed good governance and all it encompasses and brought out all the baser emotions, instincts and values that should have been cast aside before our worthy Parliamentarians had stepped into the sacred portals of this supreme institution – the Parliament of India. Also Read – The Underbelly A brief about how and when and by whom the Constitution was written may be in order, for very few of our citizens know of these details, as the focus has rightly been on the contents. However, since lately ‘optics’ have become more important than ‘substance’, let me also put in at least one Rs. 2000 pink note worth of my wealth before I deposit it in exchange for smaller denomination currency notes! The Constitution of India is the longest hand written Constitution of any country in the world. It was originally written in Hindi and English. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted it handwritten in a flowing italic style. Prem Behari Narain Raizada (Saxena), a noted calligraphist, was chosen for the task. Before Raizada commenced writing, Nehru asked him about the task remuneration. “Not a single penny” was his answer, but he asked for writing his name on the last page, or, so the story goes and his wish was granted! While Raizada wrote, noted artist Nandalal Bose and his students of Visva Bharati (Shantiniketan, West Bengal) took to embellishing the borders of each page of the Constitution. Bose not only used narratives from ancient Vedas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, but also depicted modern tales of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The section on Fundamental Rights features a scene from the Ramayana; Gandhi’s Dandi March is depicted in the section on official language; in Part XIX, Bose is seen saluting the flag; Tipu Sultan is painted in Part XVI; King Ashoka can be seen propagating Buddhism in Part VII, while torrential ocean waves are sketched in Part XXII, the last section of the Constitution that mentions the commencement and repeals. On January 24, 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, became the first person to sign the Constitution of India, while Feroze Gandhi, the then President of the Constituent Assembly was the last one to sign. The Armed Forces of India have been called up to defend the nation and consequently our constitution innumerable times, but one that rankles most is how the Armed Forces were kept in suspense when they were raring to go from December 2001 to nearly the whole of 2002. I am referring to the covert attack on our Parliament on December 13 2001, and Operation Parakram that followed. I had superannuated only two months earlier as the Vice Chief of Army Staff and had been interacting with most of the dramatis personae who were prominent players in the event. In India, the government in power was a coalition of National Democratic Alliance, with Atal B Vajpayee as the Prime Minister, while there was military rule in Pakistan, with General Parvez Musharraf as the President. Other Indian Ministers who were part of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) were Deputy and Home Minister LK Advani, Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh, Minister of Finance Yashwant Sinha, and Minister of Defence George Fernandes. The attack on the Parliament was a major intelligence and internal security failure. Many individuals and agencies were responsible for this failure, but since no details of the investigation are available in the public domain, one can only speculate about involvement of Indian Citizens. The post-incident actions of the government were a mix of action and restraint for two reasons. First, the highest policy-making body being the target, severe action was called for and second, the government felt that the serious nature of the incident would invite severe blame on the political leadership. Hence, the military option became the preferred option from the very first day. The actions of the government were later informally referred to as ‘Coercive Diplomacy’, but the chain of events and decisions did not have any ingredients of the latter. The definition of ‘Coercive Diplomacy’ states: “Attempt to get a target, a state, a group (or groups) within a state, or non-state actors: to change their objectionable behavior through either the threat to use force or the actual use of limited force”. The reality was that there was hardly any diplomacy in the early days; India ordered its military to mobilise immediately after the incident and commenced mobilization of the entire Indian Military, both on the international border (IB) and on the LoC in J&K. For clarity, the timelines are listed below: . Terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13 2001; 12 persons were killed, including the five who had attacked. The Armed Forces were ordered to carry out full mobilization. . On December 14, the Indian Government formally blamed Pakistan-based LeT and JeM for the attack. India also demanded, through a demarche to Pakistan, that Pakistan stop activities of LeT and JeM; apprehend their leaders and stop supporting these groups. . Pakistan placed its military on high alert on December 14 2001. . By January 2002, India had mobilised around 500,000 troops, including its three Strike Corps and Pakistan had responded in a similar fashion, deploying around 300,000 troops. On account of a non-existing National Security Strategy, the Indian Armed Forces were planning various military strategies in a vacuum, while the policy makers were actually making political decisions without really knowing what the armed forces should aim for. Despite this, while mobilisation was going ahead, military and political plans kept changing. Sadly, even today, the Nation has no formal National Security Strategy. Although the Indian Military had considerable edge over the Pakistani Military and our economy was doing well, it appeared that the political and military leadership were not on the same page, as could be discerned from statements of the Prime Minister and other political leaders. The nuclear factor did play in the final decisions of not adopting the military option. The Indian Military was ready to take the calculated risk, but apparently the civil leadership backed out. The nuclear factor did prompt the global players to act fast and in the final analysis, it was the danger of escalation from conventional to nuclear level that prompted the protagonists to de-escalate. India needs to revisit its nuclear policies for the future, and the political leadership needs to ‘bite the bullet’ at the appropriate time in future. The Indian casualties were up to 1,874, including 798 fatalities, mostly on account of battle accidents. Pakistani casualties were not divulged. For India, the cost for the build-up was US $3 to $4 billion, while Pakistan’s was US $1.4 billion. The standoff led to a total of 155,000 Indians and 45,000 Pakistanis displaced, as per Pakistani media estimates. One of the reasons for the failure of Operation Parakram was the slow mobilisation of 500,000 troops. It took nearly three weeks for India to move 500,000 troops, including three armoured divisions, and other supporting units to their Forward Concentration/Assembly Areas. The delay allowed Pakistan to move its own 300,000 troops, along with the supporting units to the border. Lacking strategic surprise, operations could not be launched in accordance with initial plans. The mismatch between political and military thinking, especially in nuclear issues, needs to be bridged and ‘political will’ must be exhibited at crucial junctures. This will happen only when the armed forces hierarchy becomes part of the policy-making loop on a permanent basis. In addition, the present government policy of deep selection among the seniormost hierarchy of the three services and selection of a CDS is abandoned, as all it does is to weaken the spine of contenders, who literally ‘stoop to conquer’ in the run-up. I call it the ‘Darbari Culture’, which is not at all good for the nation and certainly a big drawback for the armed forces. Lt General Vijay Oberoi is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff and the Former Founder Director of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), and now its Director General Emeritus. Views expressed are the writer’s own.

PTI

Jaipur, May 22

Former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik again attacked the government over the Pulwama attack issue, saying the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were “fought on the bodies of our soldiers”, and the then home minster would have to resign had there been a probe into the incident.

He claimed he had informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the attack just after the incident but “he told me to keep quiet”.

“Elections (Lok Sabha 2019) were fought on the bodies of our soldiers and no investigation was done. Had an inquiry been done, the then home minister (Rajnath Singh) would have to resign. Many officers would have been jailed and there would have been a huge controversy,” Malik said at an event in Bansur of Alwar district.

Malik has been vocal about the issues related to Jammu and Kashmir where he was the governor before the state was divided into the two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

He said during the event on Sunday that when the Pulwama attacked happened on February 14, 2019, the prime minister was in a shooting at the Jim Corbett National Park.

“When he came out from there I got a call (from him). I told him that our soldiers have been killed and they got killed by our mistake. He told me to keep quiet,” Malik said.

Malik was recently questioned by the CBI over his claim that he was offered Rs 300 crore as bribe to clear files related to an insurance scheme during his tenure as Jammu and Kashmir governor between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019.

He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Adani issue. Malik said Adani has created much wealth in just three years, and asked those present if they had been able to increase their wealth.

He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told Parliament that Adani had got Rs 20,000 crore and asked the government ‘where did it come from’.

“The prime minister could not answer. He talked for two days but could not answer one thing because he had no answer and I am saying that it is all his money,” Malik said.

“They loot from their chief ministers and give it to Adani and he does business and he is sure that it is my money,” Malik said.

“I was in Goa, I complained about the corruption of the chief minister there to the prime minister and the result was that I was removed as governor and the CM continued on the post. That’s why I am sure that they do corruption right under his nose and has a share in it and the entire share goes to Adani,” Malik said.

He urged people to change the government. “Because if you vote from them again, you will not get a chance to vote thereafter. After this he will not let you vote, he will say that every time only I win, then why spend on elections,” he said.

TK Arun

Senior Journalist

FANS of philologist JRR Tolkien and his lore would be familiar with Anduril and Palantir as, respectively, a magical sword and a crystal ball that shows things afar, including in the past. But Anduril and Palantir hitting the headlines are not magical relics of yore, but defence companies that came up from America’s technology startup ecosystem to develop high-tech military capability, and figure among the defence startups proving their spurs in the war in Ukraine.

China is preparing for the high-technology denial regime in which the US wants to cage its acknowledged systemic rival.

A Chinese unicorn has successfully produced microchips with circuitry that is 20 micron thick. That is a far cry from the 7 or even 4 micron circuits that power the latest generation of advanced chips from Korean and Taiwanese companies that are under American pressure to stop selling their ware to China or Chinese companies. Dozens of unicorns are coming up in China in the areas of microprocessors, robotics and artificial intelligence, as China races to prepare for the high-technology denial regime in which the US wants to cage its acknowledged systemic rival, to cap its capabilities in areas of core strategic competence.

India has also begun to use the startup ecosystem to gain capabilities that Indian companies do not have, that are vital to achieving and retaining strategic parity with other major powers and are at risk of being withheld by foreign suppliers, if access to them is managed entirely through imports. India has to do a whole lot more in this area; it has the requisite talent, opportunity and financial resources.

In this light, a recent initiative by defence shipyard Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) is most welcome. The GRSE has launched the GRSE Accelerated Innovation Nurturing Scheme (GAINS) for young entrepreneurs. The difference between GRSE opening its purse strings to any promising startup that could offer innovations in the company’s area of business and GAINS is that GRSE would first let would-be entrepreneurs familiarise themselves with its operations, so that would-be innovators know where innovations are possible and of what kind.

We are familiar with tales of Israeli youngsters coming out of their compulsory stint of military service with ideas for new technology that would aid the military work, and getting down to it, once they have let down their hair for a while on the heady slopes of the Himalayas. India’s bright young minds who join the military have a martial bent of mind and plan to become career officers, rather than tech entrepreneurs. So, in the Indian context, those who have domain knowledge of defence and those who possess technological or entrepreneurial capability tend to be two different sets with nil or minimal overlap. This cannot be overcome by liberal funding of military startups alone.Advertisement

When Covid struck, and India stared at an alarming shortage of ventilators, many agents came together to deconstruct the ventilator machine, identify its parts and components and those who could manufacture them. This swiftly resulted in the ability to produce ventilators in plenty. This method can serve as a rudimentary approach to encouraging startups in defence tech. This would help with indigenising and improving what already exists. It would not help innovative minds work on what could be. For that, those with an entrepreneurial orientation must be exposed to the work on the field of different wings of the armed forces, their planning and administration.

India faces multiple challenges in military capability. One is attaining parity or exceeding it in warfighting capability in terms of raw hardware capability. Another is the ability to integrate the diverse bits of hardware into information networks that yield analysis, integration of the results into actionable intelligence, again distributed among different execution agencies, to be acted on, with precision and speed. This second challenge is related to the new challenge our armed forces are grappling with — unified command and jointness.

There is much glib talk of artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution to complex decision-making. At present, the internal working of AI is a black box. If a piece of AI were to analyse information gathered by satellites, drones, spy craft, electronic eavesdropping and much else and propose that action X be undertaken by division Y of the infantry, rather than a strike by Air Force fighter planes as conventional analysis would indicate, would our Air Force and Army brass agree to bite their tongues and defer to the algorithm? Or should the aim be to develop automated decision-making that can articulate its reasoning and rationale?Advertisement

Can we offer final-year engineering students a choice to serve two years in the Army, to learn how it works, and think of what could make things work better? A rigorous process of selection could filter out a pilot batch of, say, 100 tech apprentice soldiers who are rotated through different parts of the services, spending time on operational aspects rather than on spit and polish, to see with fresh eyes what is done, what more could be done, and done differently. They could come out of the Army, submit projects to develop their solutions, for part-funding from the defence establishment, with the rest of the funding to be mobilised from venture capitalists more familiar with the feasibility of projects than colonels trained to see ‘can’t do’ with contempt.

The deconstructed ventilator model might be more appropriate for the chipmaking ecosystem. For true autonomy, India would need to make not just the chips, but chipmaking equipment as well. Instead of still thinner copper circuits created by flowing the vaporised metal into micro-grooves etched by laser on to silicon wafers, can we replace the electrons with photons?

For a viable startup system, we need not just liberal startup funding, but much larger outlays on R&D in general as well, to drive research in basic science as well as technology, so that the pool of knowledge and talent that the startup ecosystem can draw upon is wide and deep enough.

Half the publicity outlay of the government could be diverted to this end, perhaps?

The heritage centre has a wall of murals of women officers. On display are embossed pictures of Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay, the first woman to be promoted to the rank; Sqn Ldr Cheryl Dutta, first to fly a helicopter; Sqn Ldr Priya Nalgudwar, first to fly a transport aircraft; and Gp Capt Shailza Dhami, first to command a combat unit. The first batch of woman officers to fly fighter aircraft is in the middle. tribune photos: Pradeep Tiwari

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

On a fine Sunday morning in early 2021, then Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator VP Singh Badnore called Group Captain PS Lamba to his official residence. Lamba had recently set up a three-storey Indian Air Force (IAF) museum in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Badnore took him to the iconic Press Building in Sector 18, Chandigarh, which was India’s first glass façade structure. “He showed me the space and asked whether I could set up an IAF museum. I agreed,” says Group Captain Lamba. Designed by English architect Edwin Maxwell Fry and constructed in 1953, Press Building is one of the oldest constructions in Chandigarh.

“By the evening, Badnore had telephoned Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh about the proposal,” reveals Lamba.

Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, who was then Vice Chief of Air Staff, came for the signing of the Agreed-In-Principle document with the Chandigarh Administration on June 27, 2021. When the MoU was signed on June 3, 2022, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari was present along with UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit. He gifted a replica of an aircraft propeller as the first artefact of the IAF Heritage Centre. The propeller, by its rotation, provides forward pull to an aircraft. The gift was symbolic.

It was decided that the IAF will provide artefacts, simulators, aircraft, aircraft models and murals while the Chandigarh Tourism Department would manage the centre.

“From September 2022 onwards, we started the job. The murals were outsourced. It took eight months for the overall completion. We trained the guides for four months. The history department of the Ministry of Defence cleared the information to be displayed,” says Lamba, who was made the Project Director of the centre. His term ended on May 13, but he has been asked to keep monitoring the functioning of the centre.

Rajnath Singh inaugurated the IAF Heritage Centre last week. He termed it a testament to the courage and dedication of all those who have served in the IAF, a tribute to their sacrifice and a reminder of their invaluable contribution.Advertisement

A feel of the real thing

Built at a cost of Rs 2.75 crore, the Chandigarh centre is bigger and has more aircraft than the other IAF museums at Palam (Delhi) and Thiruvananthapuram. Two cockpits, five aircraft, and four simulators are parked here. “People can feel an aircraft. They can see which buttons are to be pressed for launching bombs and rockets, how to see speed, how to change radio frequency, how to see the altitude and compass. One doesn’t get such exposure of an aircraft elsewhere,” Lamba points out.

Advertisementhttps://f57f5b594b1f9058bcb44b5b85805f7d.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

Located at the edge of Sector 18, two aircraft meet the eye as one enters the heritage centre. One is a Folland Gnat put up near the light point, appearing to be in a descent in the sky, and the other is MiG-21 Type 96. It is perched on a platform in the parking of the erstwhile Press Building.

A visitor can sit in the cockpit of MiG-21. Having been the mainstay of the IAF for about 45 years, Type 96 was decommissioned in 2019. Inside the building, wall-to-wall murals depicting the 1971 war operations, a model of the Prachand combat helicopter and multi-role combat aircraft Tejas, models of decommissioned aircraft, and life-size paintings of Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala (Ashok Chakra, posthumously) and Corporal Gursewak Singh (Shaurya Chakra, posthumously) lead to the entrance of the main gallery. To the right are the corners dedicated to gallant men and famous operations, and to the left, the models of aircraft, helicopters, missiles, and bombs. Simulators, holographic displays of all IAF aircraft, films, and virtual reality have separate junctions.

In honour of the heroes

Two sculptures stand out. One is of Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, who led the force in the 1965 war. The other is of Air Commodore Mehar Singh, Maha Vir Chakra, who was the first to land an aircraft at the emergency landing ground in Poonch and Leh during the Indo-Pak war of 1947-48.

The first name on the gallantry awards wall is of Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, the only IAF officer to be awarded the Param Vir Chakra (PVC, posthumously). A blazer of Sekhon has also been put on display.

Different walls cover the 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and the 1999 Indo-Pak wars. A wall is dedicated to the Balakot strike too.

One cannot miss the bullet-ridden T-shirt of Squadron Leader S Jhajhria of Garud Commando Force (a special forces unit of IAF), who received the Shaurya Chakra during Operation Naira at Pulwama on January 29-30, 2022. Along with it are kept the maroon beret, sunglasses and Swiss knife cover of Corporal Nirala, who was awarded the Ashok Chakra posthumously for gunning down two category ‘A’ terrorists and injuring two others on November 18, 2017 in Bandipora district of J&K.

Advertisement

A wall is dedicated to Patiala-born Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who was the first Indian to travel to space, making his epochal journey in a Russian Soyuz T-11 in 1984. Interestingly, the wall also carries the picture of Air Commodore Ravish Malhotra, who was also shortlisted along with Wing Commander Sharma to go to space.

Models of the Pralay missile, Smart Anti Airfield Weapon, Brahmos (aerial version), Hammer Air to Surface Missile, Laser Guided Bomb, and Astra missile are displayed in a row.

Including space outside the gallery, the heritage centre is spread over 40,000 square feet. “However, there is still space left for expansion,” says Lamba.

Director Tourism, Chandigarh Administration, Rohit Gupta, says, “One aim of setting up the museum is to feature the exploits of IAF so the youth could identify with it. The other is to give a first-hand account of how things are.”

“Press Building is a heritage building,” recalls former Administrator Badnore. “Earlier, the printing press used to function but later, it was not in use. We were planning to have vintage cars here, but it didn’t work out. Then the setting up of an IAF heritage centre was proposed. The IAF responded positively. It has come out so nicely, better than what I thought. The region has youngsters who want to join the armed forces. This centre will be a great inspiration.”