New Delhi: After stoking a controversy over
woman fighter pilots, IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal P K Barbora
today hit out at the political class saying politics over
Defence purchases impinged "very badly" on the country's
military requirements.
Barbora also painted a none too optimistic picture about
the country's Defence exports saying, "as far as defence goes,
we don't even match up with Pakistan."
Making some forthright comments, Barbora said," the
internal politics over the years is such that whatever defence
requirements are cleared by the government, they are opposed
by the opposition parties and the same happens when roles
change and opposition sits in government."
"That impinges very badly on our defence requirements,"
he told a CII seminar on energising aviation sector in India.
On Tuesday, Barbora said women may be recruited as
fighter pilots provided they do not become mother till a
certain age. He also appeared to suggest that having woman
pilots in IAF may be a bad investment for the government.
On the present status of the country's capabilities in
the aerospace sector, he said India was very happy producing
small parts of aircraft and exporting them to Airbus in Europe
but China has already started building whole aircraft for the
same company.
Aware that his comments in the last two days had a
controversial tone, Barbora said he "didn't mean to drop any
bricks that day"--apparently referring to his statement on
woman fighter pilots.
"I am in a little bit of controversy. I didn't mean to
drop any bricks then and don't mean to drop any bricks today.
Please pardon me if I have to say some things which I feel
have to be uttered. I am in Z-category today," Barbora said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 21:51