The regiment has been deployed in every conflict since Independence and is the army’s emergency rapid response team
by Sandeep Unnithan
New Delhi: In the afternoon of December 11, 1971, Brigadier Abdul Qadir Khan and his officers stood on the veranda of the white Circuit House in Tangail, a town 78 km north-west of Dacca. It was a week after the Indian Army’s ‘race to Dhaka’ had been launched, a three-pronged ground offensive to capture the capital of East Pakistan. A Pakistani flag fluttered atop the building. Khan, the 93 Brigade commander and his officers were, in the words of Major Siddique Salik, ‘waiting for some bright idea to come. What came instead, were enemy aircraft, which started dropping men and machines.’
There was dismay as the skies darkened with the silhouettes of IAF An-12s, C-119s and Caribou. As a piece of equipment descended beneath its parachute, an officer exclaimed, ‘My God! That looks like a 3.7-inch howitzer!’ The officers watched as the 2nd battalion of the Indian Army’s Parachute Regiment, over 1,000 paratroopers led by their CO Colonel Kulwant Singh Pannu, carried out a textbook parachute landing. Later that evening, 2 Para linked up with the advancing 1 Maratha Light Infantry to cut off the 93 Brigade’s retreat towards Dhaka. Five days later, the entire East Pakistan military garrison surrendered to the Indian Army, as recounted in minute detail by Lt General A.A.K. Niazi’s public relations officer Major (later Brigadier) Salik, in his 1977 book, Witness to Surrender.
On August 13 this year, the 50th Parachute Brigade displayed its air-dropped jeep-mounted anti-tank units, artillery pieces and paratroopers at its home base in Agra. Present at the occasion were Lt General Yogendra Dimri, GOC-in-C of the Central Command and Para Brigade commander Brigadier P.K. Singh. Seventy-five parachutists jumped from IAF aircraft to commemorate India’s diamond jubilee celebrations. Appropriately so as the parachute regiment has seen action in all of India’s wars. Raised in 1941, it was deployed during the 1947-48 Kashmir War, the 1961 Liberation of Goa, the wars of 1962, 1965 and 1971 and the Kargil conflict of 1999.
Several countries around the world have airborne forces— described as infantry units carried into the combat theatre by aircraft and air-dropped into battle zones. Few outside the five members of the UN Security Council have the vast aviation assets required to launch such special units into the theatre. The Indian Army’s Parachute Brigade relies on IAF C-17, C-130s and IL-76s for deployment in battle. The Brigade is the army’s smallest force, comprising all arms and services and completely optimised for air insertion. It can also be ground-inserted, or moved across the seas on troop transport ships giving the army a versatile force and an instrument of what an army officer describes as ‘lethality, survivability and mobility’.
The Para Brigade comprises three battalions of around 800 soldiers each, backed by BMP-2 Infantry Combat Vehicles, a field artillery regiment, anti-tank and air-defence units, a field hospital, army engineers, signals, ordnance and provost units. The Brigade is fully self-contained because they are designed to be inserted behind enemy lines and hold out until they are joined by the main body of troops. They are designed to be airlifted at a few hours’ notice, the reason why the army almost always reaches for them in an emergency. In 1988, when the Maldives was besieged by mercenaries, president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom dialled then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for assistance. The Indian Army flew the Para Brigade towards the atoll to repel the coup. During the Nepal earthquake on April 25, 2015, the Brigade’s field hospital and engineer company were the first foreign aid units to land in Kathmandu. Lt General P.J.S. Pannu (no relation), a former deputy chief of army staff, recalls picking up the phone and asking for the Para Brigade commander. “I asked for the 60 Para field hospital to be deployed immediately, in self-contained mode for 15 days.”
Looking ahead, the Para Brigade offers valuable lessons for the army. A modernisation plan currently under way will see army divisions being replaced with Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs)– brigade-sized formations with artillery and armour. These compact all-arms and services fighting units are key to the Army’s ‘Cold Start’ war fighting strategy. They are designed to swiftly launch cross-border assaults in hours as opposed to days and weeks. IBGs will replace the infantry division with 12,000 soldiers as the primary striking arm of its field formations. More than just an idea whose time has come, the Parachute Brigade could be an idea which never really went away.

Tanks pull back from the banks of Pangong Tso lake, in Ladakh along the India-China border
The Chinese want Indian Army to move out soldiers deployed after the May 5, 2020, standoff which began with clashes at Finger 4 on the north bank of Pangong Tso
NEW DELHI: Disengagement from Gogra (Patrolling Point 17 A) at Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh has not changed troop deployment in the vicinity.
What worries Indian Army is the permanent construction of infrastructure on the Chinese side of the LAC.
“Both sides have moved back troops but there is no decrease in the number of troops in the vicinity,” said a source.
Bigger worry is the construction of infrastructure, habitat and defences, the source added. Indian Army had said on August 6 that disengagement was carried out and troops of both sides had moved back to their permanent bases.
Another source said the Chinese have troops with equipment all along the Western Highway.
“Their troops are at a distance of 150 km from Depsang, 100 km from Chushul and 60 km from Demchok.” India has maintained that only after complete disengagement, de-escalation will begin.
There have been major parlays to sort this out. And this time, the number of contentious locations along the LAC in Ladakh has increased.
The Chinese want Indian Army to move out soldiers deployed after the May 5, 2020, standoff which began with clashes at Finger 4 on the north bank of Pangong Tso.
It spread to multiple points including Hot Spring, Gogra, Galwan and Depsang.
Disengagement has taken place from Galwan (Patrolling Point 14), both banks of Pangong Tso and Gogra (PP 17A). The standoff continues at Depsang Bulge (PPs 10, 11, 11A, 12 & 13) along around 972 sq km on both sides.

Dhyan Chand. File photo

Gurjit Singh

Hockey is back in the news, thanks to the superb performance of the Indian men’s and women’s teams in the Tokyo Olympics. Dhyan Chand is in the news too as the Khel Ratna Award has been named after him. This year’s Independence Day marks the 85th anniversary of India’s hockey gold at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

In 2016, we marked the 80th anniversary of the triumph with an exhibition during my tenure as India’s Ambassador to Germany. The India-Germany final was scheduled for August 14, 1936, but it was put off by a day due to rain. India, which had not conceded any goal in the run-up to the final, faced the motivated German team, which had trained for two years. Dhyan Chand, the Indian captain, came into his own in the second half. After changing his shoes, the hockey wizard powered India to an 8-1 rout of Germany. This was the third successive gold for India in hockey. At Tokyo 2020, it was again a win over Germany, as in 1936, that brought India back to the podium.

We did extensive research for our exhibition with the help of the German media and the hockey association. The Punjab Regimental Centre provided memorabilia that was showcased at the Indian embassy in Berlin. Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar was most helpful.

Though the exhibition coincided with the I-Day celebrations, we went ahead with it on August 15 to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1936 victory. Since most of Germany is on holiday in August, the prospects of getting a high-profile guest for the event were bleak. Luckily, we were introduced to the brother-sister duo of German hockey players Natascha and Florian Keller. She was part of the team that won the hockey gold in 2004, while her brother had done it in 2008.

What linked them to the event was their grandfather, Erwin, a member of the 1936 team that played against India. At our exhibition, our chief guests saw him in a German team photo for the first time.

There was always chatter about the Indian team not giving Hitler a raised-arm salute. The offer of an army commission to Dhyan Chand by Hitler is also part of the folklore. Indeed, the Indian team did not give a Nazi salute during the march past. A rare film from the archives confirmed it.

No mention of the army offer was found. Dhyan Chand’s autobiography, Goal, has no reference to it. If the offer had been made, he would have mentioned it. After all, he was a sharpshooter on the hockey turf, as none other.

Without doubt, today’s naval game is between the US and China’s PLA Navy in the western Pacific Ocean, which indisputably was the ‘Lake of America’ post World War-II, deployment of Soviet submarines during the Cold War notwithstanding. However, defence experts have identified severe defects in the US system which severely diminished the strength of its navy.

Changing equation: The US had replaced Great Britain’s pre-eminence at sea only to now confront a formidable challenge from China in the ocean. Reuters

Abhijit Bhattacharyya

Commentator and Author

As many as 76 years after US air power compelled Japanese sea power to unconditionally surrender by dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, another August — in the 21st century — is seeing a mega escalation of tension and deployment of a fleet of combat vessels of the Australasian-American combination in the Indo-Pacific region. Purportedly, the July 2021 declaration of British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace suggests that the aim of deployment is: “We are committed to working with partners (in Indo-Pacific region) to defend democratic values, tackle shared threats and keep our nations safe.”

That sounds lofty, subject, however, to clarification pertaining to lack of definition or explanation. What are ‘democratic values’? How does one assess ‘shared threats’? Do ‘democratic values’ imply non-existence of ‘non-democratic values’? How many countries follow one and eschew the other? Aside, what are ‘shared threats’? Are these threats to economy, military, territory, sovereignty, trade, commerce, polity, air, water or cyberspace?

Whereas the deployment of the navies of the US, Japan, Australia and India till now lacks solidity (despite verbal solidarity), except for some ‘exercise’ here and there, the fresh entry of the UK, Germany, France and New Zealand has one fundamental commonality. All of them are deploying their forces far from their home base, several thousand kilometres away. Secondly, all heavily depend on bilateral trade/commerce with China. And thirdly, China has already entered deep into their economy, commerce, trade and industry through mass-scale indigenous production, thereby making herself a virtual monopoly producer-cum-supplier of essential, non-essential as well as critical finished and consumer goods.

How do then things play out? Owing to Chinese opaqueness? Reportedly, the real reason for all these dramatic deployment owes essentially to “Beijing’s militarisation”. That’s understandable. But can a rival’s militarisation, all by itself, be the sole cause of a potentially imminent and inevitable kinetic action on the waterfront? Is the militarisation of the ocean by the Communist Party of China (CPC) something new? Has it happened overnight? If not, then what were those deploying their battleships to ‘curb’ the Beijing flotilla today, doing thus far? Let’s do a rudimentary exploration of the scenario of naval expansion and expedition in the Indo-Pacific.

Without doubt, today’s naval game is between the US and the CPC-controlled PLA Navy in the western Pacific Ocean which indisputably was the ‘Lake of America’ post Second World War, deployment of Soviet submarines during the Cold War (1950-1991) notwithstanding. It was the age of Yankee Gulliver’s blue-water navy, surrounded by mud-water tiny deployable boats of the CPC coast guard.

The US could then boast of being the sole super sea power state, under President Ronald Reagan (1980s) when the Soviets were busy fighting a Vietnam-type war in the deathtrap, landlocked terrain of Afghanistan wherein Moscow had no use for its formidable fleet. By now, the USA had replaced Great Britain’s position of pre-Second World War “sea command and control” naval power.

After 30 years, however, one of the principal architects of the US navy doesn’t feel much about his country’s state of preparedness facing the Beijing fleet in its back bay. John F. Lehman, US Navy Secretary (1981-87), promoter of the idea of 600-ship navy, is dismayed. His words sound melancholic. “After a succession of Presidents ignorant of and uninterested in naval affairs, there’s an emerging realisation around the world that the US no longer possesses naval superiority and could lose a war at sea… It’s a result of… decades of catastrophic mismanagement.”

In fact, several prominent public figures of the US too hold a dim view of their once mighty fleet arm. They have identified severe defects in the US system which not only stymied the strategic role, but severely diminished the strength of its navy. It is owing to several generations of “lacklustre naval leaders” that the naval supremacy has dwindled dramatically. The American apprehension is so acute that Lt General David Nahom of the air force told the Congress: “China offensive threat is growing faster than projected. The threat is accelerating much more than we thought back in 2018.”

Is the US General right? No, he isn’t fully right. The decay began more than three decades ago. Thanks to complacent “democratic” world, led by the US’s monumental misjudgment to detect, confront and curb the secret and steady rise of an ‘autocratic’ CPC. It was all cash, commerce, capital and profit for the ‘democratic world’, convinced by one ‘autocratic’ state.

Warnings came from Jane’s Fighting Ships 1987-88: “The importance of the Pacific area as a strategic centre is slowly percolating into European minds… Any passage between Vladivostok and the South China Sea passes the doorsteps of Chinese navy… The Chinese naval air force and marine corps outnumber the total British naval personnel… The modernisation of Chinese navy is gathering momentum.”

Jane’s Fighting Ships 1988-89 gave another advance info: “Of all the world’s navies, the most difficult to assess is the Chinese. Decades of isolationism combined with preoccupation with coastal defence have restricted things. Yet, if a navy employs three hundred thousand people…it is a shame that it’s so difficult to acquire reliable information.”

Nevertheless, as “China now is willing to embrace more western technology, it is to be hoped that she will assist in giving a more accurate account of an expanding navy of which she can be justifiably proud, but which has a lot of catching up to do to achieve the Western standards of operational effectiveness”.

How misguided were the world’s ‘democratic’ nations which now regret their collective myopia and misjudgment, having woken up when water flows not under the hull of the fleet, but the waves pass overhead!

Now, let New Delhi also hear the wailing Tony Abbott, the former Australian PM who hosted CPC supremo Xi Jinping in 2014 and concluded the Canberra-Beijing bilateral free trade deal in 2015.

He wrote in The Australian: “China exploited West’s goodwill and wishful thinking to steal our technology and undercut industries…The basic problem is that China’s daunting power is a consequence of the free world’s decision to invite a communist dictatorship into global trading networks… In the process, China became much more powerful than the old Soviet Union ever was, because it is now rapidly developing a military, and spoiling for a fight over Taiwan.”

Is it better late than never? Is it ‘late’ or is it ‘never’? Hope, looking only at the sea doesn’t result in a debacle in the Asian heartland? As was thought of by US Naval Secretary John F. Lehman in the 1980s? To counter or attack the Soviet Union through the Siberian land-front, to penetrate the main Leningrad-Moscow-Stalingrad axis! So, ‘democracy’ needs be careful. Just as Taiwan, the South China Sea axis is the CPC fulcrum, the heartland Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) too cannot be ignored by the free world.

Photo for representational purpose only

New Delhi, August 13

Trained by Army veterans, selected people with disabilities will undertake an expedition from here to Siachen Glacier on Independence Day to create a new world record for the largest team of people with disabilities to reach the world’s highest battlefield. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh virtually launched a series of events to mark 75 years of Independence. — TNS

Dhruv helicopter from an Army Aviation Corps squadron based at Pathankot had taken off on a routine sortie when it crashed into the dam

The unit will explore the digitally located wreckage at the depth of approximately 80-100 meters.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 14

The Army has intensified the search operations for the wreckage of its Dhruv helicopter that had crashed into the Ranjit Sagar Dam on August 3 by flying in a Submarine Rescue Unit of Indian Navy to the crash site near Kathua in Jammu region. The bodies of the two pilots, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Captain, are also yet to be retrieved.

The unit will explore the digitally located wreckage at the depth of approximately 80-100 meters. The Indian Air Force lifted the heavy equipment for underwater search and rescue from Vishakhapatnam to Air Force Station Pathankot on the intervening night of August 13 and 14. 

Earlier, a small area of 60 meters by 60 meters had been localised and special sonar equipment flown in from Kochi was employed to enable the search operations to enter the final phase. On August 11, the Army had stated that the wreckage had been identified at a depth of approximately 80 meters from the surface of the reservoir.

The Indian Army and all other agencies to include Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, NDRF, Ranjit Sagar Dam Authority, local District Authorities including locals are sparing no efforts for bringing the operations to a final conclusion.  The reservoir is 25-km long, 8-km wide and more than 500-foot deep.

“Experts, specialised equipment and divers are being continuously flown in and international assistance is also being sought,” the Army’s Western Command had said. Divers from the Navy and the Army’s Special Forces have been involved in the search operation, along with multi-beam sonars, side scanners, remotely operated vehicles and underwater manipulators which have been flown in from Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi.

The search continued unabated in spite of bad weather and rain. This deep underwater operation is especially challenging due to the near-zero visibility below 50 meters, owing to the colloidal nature of water in this season which adversely impacts accuracy of sonars and other sensors.

The Dhruv helicopter from an Army Aviation Corps squadron based at Pathankot had taken off on a routine sortie when it crashed into the reservoir. Only a part of the helicopter’s wreckage was recovered in the initial phase of the search. The Army has not officially released the names of the missing persons.

Sources said that this is the second incident involving Dhruv helicopters from the same squadron in the past about six months.

Another Dhruv from a different unit, also based at Pathankot, made a forced landing last week after suffering an oil leak, sources added.

CM requests it to go ahead with programme and warns the islanders that ‘anti-India activities’ will be dealt with an ‘iron fist’

Pramod Sawant. File photo

Panaji, August 14

The Navy has said that it has cancelled its plan to unfurl the national flag on Sao Jacinto island in South Goa on the Independence Day after local residents objected to it, following which state Chief Minister Pramod Sawant requested the naval authorities to go ahead with the Tricolour hoisting programme and warned the islanders that “anti-India activities” would be dealt with an “iron fist”.

Sawant said it was “unfortunate and shameful” that some people on the island were objecting to the hoisting of the flag, and added that  his government would not tolerate such acts.

As a part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75th Independence Day, the Ministry of Defence has planned unfurling of the national flag on islands across the nation between August 13 and 15, officials have said.

A spokesperson of the Navy’s INS Hansa base in Goa had said on Friday that a team from Goa Naval Area visited islands of Goa including Sao Jacinto island as part of this pan-India initiative.

“However, the plan at Jacinto island had to be cancelled as the same was objected to by the residents,” he said.

The island is located near Vasco town in South Goa district of the coastal state.

The naval official said that the nationwide ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ initiative had been undertaken to instil a sense of patriotism and celebrate the run-up to the 75th year of Independence.

Reacting to the Navy’s announcement of cancelling the flag-hoisting programme, CM Sawant said on Twitter on Friday, “It is unfortunate and shameful that some individuals at St Jacinto Island have objected to Hoisting of the National Flag by the Indian Navy on the occasion of India’s Independence Day. I condemn this and want to state on record that my Government will not tolerate any such acts.” 

“I have requested the Indian Navy to go ahead with their original plan and have assured full cooperation from Goa Police. These attempts of Anti-India activities shall be dealt with an iron fist. It will always be Nation First,” he added. PTI

Pul-e-Alam, 70 km from Kabul, and Sharana in eastern province fall to advancing insurgents; capture follows fall of key cities Kandahar, Heart; 3,000 US troops to arrive in Kabul by Sunday

A Taliban fighter looks on as he stands at the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan, on August 14, 2021. Reuters

Kabul, August 14

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he was in urgent talks with local leaders and international partners as Taliban rebels captured two more towns, one of them a gateway to the Capital, Kabul.

“As your President, my focus is on preventing further instability, violence, and displacement of my people,” Ghani said in a brief televised address as the United States and other countries rushed in troops to help evacuate their embassies.

Ghani gave no sign of responding to a Taliban demand that he resign for any talks on a ceasefire and a political settlement, saying “re-integration of the security and defence forces is our priority, and serious measures are being taken in this regard”.

He spoke soon after the insurgents took Pul-e-Alam, the Capital of Logar province that is 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul, according to a local provincial council member. 

The Taliban did not face much resistance, the provincial council member told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The gain of the city, a key staging post for a potential assault on Kabul, comes a day after the insurgents took the country’s second- and third-biggest cities.

American troops have begun flying in to Kabul to help in the evacuation of embassy personnel and other civilians, a US official said.

Taliban also captured the capital of the Paktika province bordering Pakistan, an AP quoted an Afghan lawmaker as saying. 

Khalid Asad, a lawmaker from the eastern province, says the local capital, Sharana, fell to the insurgents on Saturday. 

The Taliban have rapidly advanced across northern, western and southern Afghanistan in recent weeks and now control most of the country’s provincial capitals. The Taliban are currently battling government forces some 11 kilometers (7 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

Their lightning advance comes less than three weeks before the US plans to withdraw the last of its forces.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said two battalions of Marines and one infantry battalion will arrive in Kabul by Sunday evening, involving about 3,000 troops.

“They have arrived, their arrival will continue ’til tomorrow,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

An infantry brigade combat team will also move out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Kuwait to act as a quick reaction force for security in Kabul if needed, the Pentagon has said.

Britain and several other Western nations are also sending troops as resistance from Afghan government forces crumbles and fears grow that an assault on Kabul could be just days away.

An Afghan government official confirmed on Friday that Kandahar, the economic hub of the south, was under Taliban control as US-led international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.

Herat in the west, near the border with Iran, also fell to the hardline Islamist group.

Kandahar’s loss was a heavy blow to the government. It is the heartland of the Taliban ethnic Pashtun fighters who emerged in 1994 amid the chaos of civil war – and is close to the town of Spin Boldak, one of the two main entry points into Pakistan and a major source of tax revenues.

Burning documents

A US defence official said before the fall of Pul-e-Alam that there was concern that the Taliban—ousted from power in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States—could make a move on Kabul within days.

“Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment, but clearly … if you just look at what the Taliban has been doing, you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Some embassies have begun to burn sensitive material ahead of evacuating, diplomats said.

The US embassy in the Afghan capital informed staff that burn bins and an incinerator were available to destroy material including papers and electronic devices to “reduce the amount of sensitive material on the property”, according to an advisory seen by Reuters.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “Afghanistan is spinning out of control” and urged all parties to do more to protect civilians.

“This is the moment to halt the offensive. This is the moment to start serious negotiation. This is the moment to avoid a prolonged civil war, or the isolation of Afghanistan,” Guterres told reporters in New York.

Many people in the capital were stocking up on rice and other food as well as first aid, residents said. Visa applications at embassies were running in the tens of thousands, officials said.

The explosion in fighting has raised fears of a refugee crisis and a rollback of gains in human rights. Some 400,000 civilians have been forced from their homes this year, 250,000 of them since May, a UN official said.

Of Afghanistan’s major cities, the government still holds Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, in addition to Kabul.

The speed of the Taliban’s gains has led to recriminations over the US withdrawal, which was negotiated last year under the administration of President Joe Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden said this week he did not regret his decision to follow through with the withdrawal. He noted Washington has spent more than $1 trillion and lost thousands of troops over two decades, and called on Afghanistan’s army and leaders to step up.

Opinion polls showed most Americans back Biden’s decision, but Republicans criticised the Democratic president’s handling of the US withdrawal. — Agencies

India keeping watch on trapped Sikhs, Hindus

Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, arrives for peace talks in Doha, Qatar. Reuters

Sandeep Dixit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

Kabul’s chief for reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday appealed for an emergency UN Security Council session at a regional conference on Afghanistan in Doha. This could put the spotlight on New Delhi which holds the presidency of the UNSC. India was present at the meeting of the extended “Troika Plus” on Afghanistan on Thursday.

All those at the meeting agreed not to recognise any regime taking over by force and insisted on expediting peace talks. Local Afghan media reported that the Ashraf Ghani government had offered a share in power in exchange for cessation of violence. But there was no confirmation from Kabul.

The Taliban have taken over Herat, Qala Naw (Badhgis) and Ghazni. As was the case in Kunduz and Faizabad, the local governor and police chief are reported to have made a deal with the Taliban. However, they have been arrested, as per a government spokesperson.

Resistance has been growing with several insurgent warlords, sidelined by the Ghani government, jumping into the fray. Among them are Abdul Rashid Dostum, Mohamed Atta Noor and son of the late Ahmed Shah Masood. India was invited for the extended talks at Doha during a personal visit on August 7 by Qatar’s Special Envoy Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani.

• Ghani has offered share in power: Reports
• Warlords Dostum, Atta Noor jump into fray

Russia proposes…

• Ceasefire with the Taliban
• Inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue
• Interim coalition govt, polls in 2 yrs

MEA’s Joint Secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) JP Singh represented India. Besides Turkey and Indonesia, the others present included Special Envoys of “Troika Plus” — the US, Russia, Pakistan and China — and representatives of the Taliban, the Afghan Government and host Qatar. The MEA said the government continued to closely monitor the situation with an eye on Afghan Hindu and Sikh minorities. The embassy in Kabul continues to remain in touch with Afghan Hindu and Sikh community members.

On contacts with the Taliban, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said “The government is in touch with various stakeholders.” On Pakistan’s role, the MEA said India had been actively discussing with others the need to stop “malign influences” from jeopardising the ongoing talks. “The world knows what kind of role Pakistan has played and what they have done,” he observed.

Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (Retd), who turns 80 Sunday, also became the oldest man to have flown the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas after a flight in February 2020.

New Delhi: For Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (Retd), who turned 80 Sunday, flying the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas last February, was a remarkable experience he will always cherish. 

Not because the retired IAF officer, then aged 78, was the oldest man to fly the Tejas. But because he had seen the aircraft mature into a full-fledged operational fighter from the days of the drawing board.

As a test pilot, he was in the Tejas hot seat for the fighter’s first 98 flights as the program director of the project.

“Tejas is a remarkable aircraft and has the best flying record ever in the world,” Air Marshal Rajkumar told ThePrint in an interview. “There have been over 5,000 developmental flights without a single accident whatsoever.” 

Rajkumar, who was commissioned in 1962 and retired in 2001, is one of the most widely experienced test pilots of the IAF.

It was in September 1994, when he was the Additional Assistant Chief of Air Staff or ACAS (Ops) at Air HQ, that Rajkumar was sent to the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) — an autonomous agency under the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) created in 1984 — to oversee the flight testing of the LCA. 

He was personally sought for the job by former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who was then the scientific adviser to the Prime Minister and director general of the ADA. Rajkumar went on to become ADA director and served in the role until after retirement. 

“I served in the ADA from 1994-2003, during which I set up the National Flight Test Centre,” the retired officer said, referring to the ADA directorate tasked with Tejas testing.

Speaking to ThePrint, Rajkumar, who has also penned a book on the LCA — Radiance in Indian Sky – The Tejas Saga, co-authored with journalist B.R. Srikanth— said the fighter jet has been the target of a sustained vilification campaign.

Some of the world’s most celebrated fighters — including India’s latest acquisition, Rafale — followed similar development timelines, he said, adding that the criticism directed in Tejas’ direction was “unfortunate”.

Also Read: Tejas, a tale of India’s nascent aerospace system with a happy endinghttps://bf8e22d6b20925b82533b69ef5db3060.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

‘Tejas delay a misconception’ 

It was in 1983 that the Government of India, then led by Indira Gandhi, rolled out a project to build a new LCA as a replacement for the Russian MiG-21s. 

The plan was to carry out the first flight of the new aircraft by 1994. However, the first prototype of LCA flew only in 2001. It was at the time that the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee christened the LCA “Tejas”. In December 2013, the Tejas got Initial Operational Clearance and, in 2019, the IAF was given the first aircraft with Final Operational Clearance.  

Earlier this year, the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared a Rs 48,000-crore deal for 83 Tejas, which included 73 Mark 1A versions, marking the first big order for the LCA with the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). 

While the ADA is the coordinator of the LCA programme, HAL is the production partner.

According to Rajkumar, the “unfortunate part of the entire Tejas programme was that it was the most criticised project in the world by the media and others”.

Contrary to allegations that the project has been a money-guzzler, he added, a total of Rs 14,293 crore was spent on the development of the Tejas between 1986 and 2020, when the Tejas’ naval version made its first landing on an aircraft carrier.

“It works out to be Rs 400 crore per year. And see what we have achieved with the Tejas programme. We now have a world-class single-engine fighter, and all future projects, including the fifth-generation one, the deck-based twin-engine fighter, and Tejas Mk II, will be based on what we have gained in this programme,” he said.

Asked about the criticism on account of the alleged delay in the development of the fighter, Rajkumar said this was a misconception. “Everybody calculates from 1983, when Indira Gandhi approved the plan to make an indigenous fighter. It was in 1986 that Rs 500 crore was given to carry out the project definition phase,” he said.  

“French firm Dassault Aviation was roped in and they were paid a huge sum. They did the job. It was in 1991 when the plan was presented to the government and it was only in 1993 that money was allocated for a technology demonstrator. This was Rs 2,188 crore,” he said.

The date from which the programme’s duration is calculated, he added, should either be when the technology demonstrator flew or when the first payment for the same was made in 1993. 

Seeking to compare the Tejas timeline with that of other fighters, Rajkumar said when the Eurofighter project was initiated by the UK in the 1980s, they had already tested a fly-by-wire system (which replaces conventional manual flight controls with an electronic interface) on the Jaguar.

“The Eurofighter (developed by four European nations) came into service in 2003. They also took nearly 30 years (the fly-by-wire system was tested in the 1970s) to develop the aircraft despite having prior experience and technology. Similarly for the Gripen (Swedish) and even the Rafale (French),” he said.

When India started the project, the Air Marshal noted, it did not have any technology or experience of making a modern fighter. 

“We started from scratch. We engaged the Americans and the French also. I still remember during one of the project meetings in the mid-1990s, I told a visiting American official that none in the room was earning even $1,000 per month as salary, including me,” he added. “The American was shocked on hearing this.” 

The sanctions imposed on India following the Pokhran nuclear tests were also an impairment as all help being extended from outside was withdrawn, including technological know-how, Rajkumar said. 

India’s nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 were followed by sanctions from western nations, including the US.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)

Also Read: What the Tejas deal means for IAF, and India’s chequered history with indigenous fighters