As a part of the Indian Air Force Day’s 90th-anniversary celebration, nearly 80 military aircraft and helicopters Participated in the Air Force Day fly-past on Saturday at the Sukhna Lake complex.
Indians celebrated October 8, 2022, as the 90th Indian Air Force day paying tribute to the air warriors of the Indian Air force who tirelessly defend the nation by securing the Indian airspace and conducting rescue operations during natural calamities.
“On Air Force Day, my greetings to the courageous air warriors and their families. In line with the motto of नभः स्पृशं दीप्तम्, the Indian Air Force has shown exceptional dexterity for decades. They have secured the nation and also shown remarkable human spirit during disasters”, PM Narendra Modi tweeted with a video of the IAF.
On Air Force Day, my greetings to the courageous air warriors and their families. In line with the motto of नभः स्पृशं दीप्तम्, the Indian Air Force has shown exceptional dexterity for decades. They have secured the nation and also shown remarkable human spirit during disasters. pic.twitter.com/6g9twDJAGx
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 8, 2022
On this day of national pride, let’s acknowledge the contributions made by India’s first female IAF pilot Gunjan Saxena.
Who is Gunjan Saxena?
“The machine will not know whether a man is flying it or a woman is flying it.” This is what Gunjan Saxena, the first Indian Air Force woman pilot who served in the 1999 Kargil conflict, said.
Born in UP’s Lucknow in 1975, Gunjan arrived in Delhi to study Physics at Hansraj College. After pursuing her graduation, Gunjan joined the Delhi Flying Club at Safdarjung for aviation training and in 1994, joined the Indian Air Force along with 24 other women–the first batch of women for training in the IAF.
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The daughter of an Army officer, Gunjan was summoned by the IAF when the conflict between India and Pakistan escalated in 1999. Her first posting was in Udhampur, as part of the 132 Forward Area Control (FAC). Then only 25, Gunjan was asked to fly in Srinagar and she agreed, before making history as the only woman pilot in combat.
In her book ‘Kargil: Untold Stories from the War’, author Rachna Bisht Rawat explains how Saxena flew over the battleground, covering the Kargil–Tololing–Batalik area, often flying over “mountainous terrain where Indian and Pakistani soldiers are firing at each other” to ferry wounded soldiers.
A woman in control of a fighter jet did ruffle some feathers but it wasn’t long before her presence was welcome and male pilots treated her with respect and bonhomie, the book reads.
Controversies:
In 2020 a film under Netflix’s banner named “Gunjan Saxena- The Kargil girl”, starring Janvi Kapoor, bought the IAF pilot back to the spotlight. However, accompanying the spotlight came its companion ‘controversy’.
The movie, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and directed by Sharan Sharma, shows Flight Lieutenant Saxena as the first, and only, woman pilot to have flown sorties during the 1999 Kargil war, which one of her colleagues, Flight Lieutenant Sreevidya Rajan, has now challenged.
In a Facebook post, Rajan claimed that Saxena was not the only woman IAF officer posted to the Udhampur base in 1996 as she was with her. She wrote that when the Kargil war started.
Rajan further said She was the first woman pilot to be sent along with male counterparts in the first detachment of our unit deployed at Srinagar. She claimed she had already flown missions in the conflict area before Gunjan’s arrival at Srinagar.
In the post, Rajan recalled how the woman pilots were viewed with the usual preconceived notions and prejudices from a few colleagues at Udhampur, but that they were never ill-treated by fellow officers. She said she believed that facts may have been twisted by the filmmakers for the sake of the film’s publicity. Besides this, IAF objected to certain scenes as they portrayed them in an undue negative light.
Soon Gunjan cleared the air on the matter. In a letter published on NDTV, Saxena upheld that she indeed was the first woman to fly in a combat zone.
She said that she did not like to be in the limelight, but felt the need to address the controversy since she was disheartened to see her hard-earned reputation being taken away. Defending the IAF, she said that it was too big and too respectable a force to even be scratched by the controversy. On the alleged discrimination faced by the woman pilots, she clarified that it was never at the organizational level.
Gunjan said the movie was based on her experience alone and in no way intended to slander the IAF. The idea of the film, she wrote, “Was to showcase my life, my journey, my dreams, and my little achievements”.
As a part of the Indian Air Force Day’s 90th-anniversary celebration, nearly 80 military aircraft and helicopters Participated in the Air Force Day fly-past on Saturday at the Sukhna Lake complex.
It is for the first time that the IAF decided to hold its annual Air Force Day parade and fly-past outside the Delhi NCR.
The Chief of Air Staff w also unveiled the new pattern of combat uniform for the IAF personnel on this occasion.
Indian Air Force Day: New Combat Uniform unveiled!@IAF_MCC
Watch more: https://t.co/LHR45vcmqO pic.twitter.com/zXb0nfeAYz
— DD India (@DDIndialive) October 8, 2022
Moreover, the Government approves the creation of a new branch, called the Weapon Systems (WS) branch in the Indian Air Force, It is aimed at entailing the unification of all weapon system operators under one entity dedicated to operational employment of all ground-based & specialist airborne weapon systems.
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