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We were not allowed initiative in
'65 war: ex-IAF chief
by Suman Sharma

      New Delhi: Former Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S.Krishnaswamy said on Tuesday that Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots were virtually prevented from taking the initiative in warding off aerial attacks from Pakistan during the 1965 India-Pakistan War. Taking his war of words in the media with Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh forward, Air Chief Marshall (retired) Krishnaswamy said in a interview that though he was a junior fighter pilot during the 1965 war, the lasting impression of that conflict was of being repeatedly plastered, and not being able to hit back in spite of possessing the required firepower. During the 1965 war, the Indian Air Force lost many planes on the ground as well as in the initial phase of the conflict in the Chhamb-Jaurian sector. These could have been avoided, many young pilots felt if the IAF had taken the courage and the initiative to attack the Pakistan fighters on the ground. Accepting that he could not have been aware of all the facts, Krishnaswamy said that his reactions in the media more than four decades down the lane were purely based on the circumstances in which he was placed as a young pilot in the cockpit of a fighter jet. "Certainly, there may have been a compulsion, but I am not aware of it, but certainly, as a man, when you are fighting a war, it churns you, that we missed them yesterday and the same aeroplanes get up and shoot us down. It's a powerful impression that was left on us," said the former air chief. Krishnaswamy said a war never gave anyone a second chance.

     About Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh's statement on his discussions with former Defence Minister Y.B.Chavan, Krishnaswamy said: "As a disciplined soldier, we couldn't hit it on ground, but as a natural instinct, I feel we missed them because they came and plastered us the next day, 24 or 48 hours later." "What had changed in 48 hours? The fact they came and hit us, therefore you're free to hit them back. Had we hit them first, then they wouldn't have found us on ground. It is all about who takes the initiative," he added. Krishnaswamy blamed the escalation fear on the military and said the change in mind set of those governing the country was possible only if the defence forces were successful in generating confidence in the government. To back up his argument, he cited the escalation fears that surfaced during the 1962 Sino- Indian war, where air power was not used, the 1965 India-Pakistan War and the Kargil War in 1999. "What is an escalation is conceptual. You don't have the powers to control the enemy. It is your judgment as to if I do something, will he do 'x', '2x' or do nothing. That comes from intelligence and planning. If you expect 'x' and he does '2x', it's your responsibility to defend against that, the so called higher risks," Krishnaswamy said. "So, those dialogues were purely military and had nothing to do with the political. How does the political power perceive it, is limited and that's not escalatory. In my own experience as a chief, I've gone through this dialogue that the use of air power can become escalatory in India, certainly in India. But there's a dialogue between the government and the military to resolve this issue and generate confidence," Krishnaswamy added.

     The former chief, who is a part of the India Rejuvenation Initiative, an independent body of intellectuals working towards anti-corruption, said that the proposal for the 126 new aircrafts that the Indian Air Force proposes to buy was put forth six or seven years back, but it hasn't moved any further. He stressed on the defence budget being spent wisely rather than opulently. Talking about the inventory of the Indian Air Force in the wake of the Pakistani Air Force acquiring F-16s from the USA, he said that the IAF had at least five engines being operated in aircrafts here which were obsolete and were not in use any where in the world. Expressing concern over the depleting fleet of aircrafts in the IAF's inventory, he said that the maintenance of the old machines was far more expensive than buying new ones.

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