Jaguar fighters take part in school annual day celebrations
for Lawrence School, Sanawar and Punjab Public School, Nabha, at the
exchequer’s cost
Vikram
Jit Singh
Chandigarh |
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A
trinket? A Jaguar jet |
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The
Sanawar flypast had old boys of other schools miffed. But the
IAF didn’t see a problem |
Fighter jets of
the Indian Air Force (IAF) are the latest on the list of status symbols
flaunted by India’s infamous old boys network. Jaguars of the
IAF’s Ambala-based 14 Squadron conducted two flypasts at the annual
days of well-known public schools: Lawrence School, Sanawar, on October
4 and Punjab Public School (PPS), Nabha, on October 19. Though there
was no authorisation or rules under which the IAF conducted the flypasts,
a couple of lakhs were spent on each Jaguar for the events. An old boys
network in the IAF along with some deft manoeuvres by school executive
committee members ensured these favours.
At Sanawar’s
159th Annual Day, two Jaguars flew 500 feet above the school parade
ground twice. On the ground, a team of IAF personnel acted as forward
air controllers and masterminded the flypast. It is learnt that retired
Air Commodore VS Yadav, whose children are also old boys from Sanawar,
was celebrating his 50th anniversary of passing out from the school
and had pulled strings in the IAF to arrange the flypast. Wing Commander
Alok Joshi and Squadron Leader Sourabh Yadav piloted the aircraft.
The Sanawar flypast
evidently left old boys from other public schools in the region peeved.
Within days, PPS Nabha’s influential executive committee member
KP Singh got issued a public condemnation of the flypast on the grounds
that it had left retired and serving IAF officers “frowning”
and that the cost of the flypast had to be “borne by the taxpayer”.
The IAF hastily obliged PPS, upgrading the flypast to three Jaguars
for its annual day on October 19 which had Punjab Chief Secretary KR
Lakhanpal in attendance. “The Jaguars over PPS, Nabha, were flown
by Wing Commander Khajuria, Squardon Leader CJ Singh and Flight Lt Dubey.
The flypast made the children happy and it was also meant to motivate
the students to fly. We have over 500 officers from our old boys serving
in the defence forces,” PPS Nabha pro RS Sodhi said.
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The
IAF says Sanawar was on its exercise training route and Nabha
was near its base |
The explanation
offered by the IAF HQ is revealing. Spokesperson Wing Commander Mahesh
Upasini told Tehelka: “The Sanawar school lies in the local flying
area and the routes of IAF fighter aircraft. In the local flying area,
Jaguars carry on their routine training exercises. So, during the end
of one such routine exercise, the Jaguars did fly past the school. No
additional flying effort was spent nor burden put on the exchequer.
And the end part of the exercise was towards motivating the students
for a career in the IAF.’’
Queried on the
PPS Nabha flypast, Wing Commander Upasani just had “no comments’’,
adding that “Nabha also lies close to Ambala”. The explanation
makes it very clear that the flypasts had not been authorised either
by IAF HQ or the defence ministry as the power, according to Wing Commander
Upasini, has been delegated to the Western Air Command’s AOC-in-C.
IAF sources concede
that the Sanawar flypast had been arranged for the school. “It
was indeed an exceptional case. The school had made a request for
the flypast and the IAF obliged.’’ The lack of logic in
the IAF’s explanation that Sanawar and Nabha were in the “routes’’
or close to Ambala implies that any school in similar circumstances
would be entitled to an IAF flypast.
The purported motivational
effect of such flypasts on students, especially those in Sanawar, is
open to question. Undoubtedly both Sanawar and PPS Nabha have a military
background. However, Sanawar being one of India’s most expensive
boarding schools, the recruitment of students from here in recent years
has been absymal and the flypast is hardly likely to improve the situation.
In fact, the motivational
role of the IAF is confined to their official flypasts of various fighter
and bomber aircraft on important days and the scheduled aerobatic
performance of Surya Kirans in different regions, like that over Srinagar’s
Dal Lake, to motivate and boost enrolment.
In the absence of
any policy for such allegedly ‘motivational’ shows, the
dangers are fraught for gross misuse of IAF aircraft and waste of public
money by the elite.
When pressed for
a reply on the issues thrown up by the official explanation, Wing Commander
Upasini told Tehelka that he would “not like to offer comment.’’
