Corruption has infected the armed forces: Air Chief Marshal

Ahmedabad, Aug 13: Corruption has infected the Indian Armed Forces too, admits Chief of the Air staff Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi.

He was speaking at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) late last night.

However, he was quick to clarify that only certain army officials are corrupt, and they very few in number. Of course, they have indeed brought dishonour to us, Mr Tyagi said.

The Air Chief also warned the Indian political class against ignoring up-gradations in the armed forces from time-to-time as political and economical stability can't be achieved and sustained without internal and external security of the country.

Giving an example, the Air Marshal pointed out that the hurling of just one grenade at the tourists in Srinagar has thrown the entire revival process of tourism in that region out of gear.

Similarly the threat from the Maoists is also on the rise. The bigger problem with Maoists is that they are very difficult to identify as they are Indian citizens.

The Air Chief stressed ''We are at war with Pakistan since 1947. These include not just the few declared wars in the last six decades, but also the low intensity ones. Pakistan has changed its strategy from an open-war to a low-cost militancy war.'' ACM Tyagi also warned though opening of the borders for bilateral trade relationship with China is welcome in the present scenario of globalisation and the WTO regime, but, ''We shouldn't ignore that it is a friend with a Big Gun. We have experienced it in 1962 too.'' The Air Marshal also stated it was a political mistake that we didn't use our Air Force in 1962, fearing retaliations from the Chinese Air Force, but in fact, every country should use all it means to defend itself during war.

During the question-answer session, Mr Tyagi also admitted some of the IAF pilots want to quit to join the private airlines.

However, they are very few in numbers, hardly 10-15 and not over 200 as reported in media, he clarified.

In reply to another question, ACM Tyagi denied the alleged charges of exploitation and harassment of women officers during service or at the time of entrance procedures. In fact, such hue and cry were being made by those who failed to qualify or could not withstand the rigours of the job. However, at present we are not giving fighter-pilot assignments to women-pilots as the idea is only on an experimental basis the world over.

UNI