"Hum LoC cross nahi karenge (we will not cross the LoC)," was the firm diktat by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Chief of Air Staff A.Y. Tipnis during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

Recalling the events that led to India using air power to drive out Pakistani army intruders who had occupied the peaks overlooking the Srinagar-Leh highway in 1999, Tipnis said that when Vajpayee learned that the Indian Army was finding it difficult to carry out operations without air assistance, he immediately agreed for the use of air power.