The tribute to Tejas

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection

- NATIONAL INTEREST SHEKHAR GUPTA

‘The unfortunate Tejas crash and the pilot’s death at the Dubai Air Show are a shattering moment.

‘The Indian Air Force (IAF) is too strong, proud and professional to let this weigh it down. For India’s policymakers, however, this is a useful juncture to reflect on whether they’ve been, and are being, entirely fair to the IAF, given what it needs. Or in the demands they place on the IAF, the compromises and “adjustments” they seek.

It is also important, however, that we take a deep breath and remind ourselves that pilots are particularly tough people. Among the toughest of them will be found in the IAF because globally they are some of those few who remain perpetually in operational mode.

This is not to say that the Indian Army and Indian Navy enjoy long tenures in peacetime. The IAF stands out for special mention for three reasons. One, it is the first responder in most escalatory or punitive situations, given the Modi government's every-act-of-terror-is-an-act-of-war deserving instant retaliation doctrine. Second, because the IAF is the only one of the three services where combat is carried out almost exclusively by its officers, who form a small, tightly knit community. And third, of the three the IAF is the most technology-dependent.

Once again, since we understand the inter-service competition, we must acknowledge that technology is critical to the other two as well. It is just that in the air force, the fighting elements — the instruments to guide, control and protect them on the ground — all bristle with ever-changing electronics.