Still haunted by ghosts of '66 Mizoram operation, air force may not like being used in internal strife situations again
Still haunted by ghosts of '66 Mizoram operation, air force may not like being used in internal strife situations again
At the Lohegaon air base, there is no sense of urgency in the air. Fighter planes are on practice sorties, as usual. Their unchanged routine suggests the Indian Air Force (IAF) does not quite see things the same way as Home Minister P C Chidambaram, who is toying with the idea of using aeroplanes to bomb Naxalites in the wake of the Chhattisgarh massacre.
After 75 CRPF personnel were killed in the jungles of Dantewada district, Chidambaram had said the government could think of using the IAF against Maoists if necessary.
T K Singha, IAF spokesman in New Delhi, refused to comment on Chidambaram's idea, but a source said the IAF does not want to repeat the blunder it committed in 1966, when air strikes were used in Mizoram against insurgents.
The IAF ended up burning its fingers in Mizoram, as it earned flak for the loss of civilian life and property.
Large-scale disturbances had broken out on February 1966 as the Mizo National Front was struggling to achieve independence of Greater Mizoram. The government under the then prime minister Indira Gandhi asked the IAF to bomb targets in Aizawl. The town was bombed with Toofani and Hunter jet fighters causing a great deal of collateral damage.
"A number of innocent civilians were killed and a large number of people became homeless, inviting harsh criticism for the IAF," the source said.
Air Marshal Sadanand Kulkarni (Retired) said the forces were not meant to be used in internal strife situations.
"It is totally wrong to use the IAF to fight Naxalites. The air force is not meant to fight people within the country," said Kulkarni. "If used, collateral damages can be enormous as fighter planes are not for focused attacks."
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