There are 18 more such expressway inaugurations slated for the next couple of years, say those in the know of the expressway rollout. And Prime Minister NarendraModi is unlike any of his predecessors. They say he tries to model himself on Indira Gandhi. They also say he is following in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s footsteps, but there apparently is no mould of Nehru in which Modi can fit in. At least this is what we hear from those who want to take forward Nehru’s legacy.

Be that as it may, Prime Minister NarendraModi shouldn’t have set this example – taken the C-130 J Super Hercules to an inauguration on the 341 km long Purvanchal Expressway. Some say it’s an insult to the IAF! Indira Gandhi wouldn’t have done it. Even if she tried to, there were formidable defence service officers of the ilk of Sam Manekshaw who would have told her to take a walk!

And Nehru?Nope, never. Ditto LalBahadurShastri. PV NarasimhaRao.Definitely not VP Singh or Morarji Desai.Even Chandrashekhar and IK Gujral.Devegowda and Charan Singh would have fled the field before committing such a faux pas. But NarendraModi is a different cup of tea! He is Superman and Spiderman rolled into one. He is Captain India! If you all haven’t noticed, Modi’s 56” chest is made of another kind of mettle.

That said,Modi, perhaps, chose a wrong calling. Now, if he hadn’t become chaiwala, he would have become an army officer posted on the LoC or the LAC. If not that, he would have become the IAF pilot of a C-130 J Super Hercules. But he becomes the Prime Minister and takes an IAF aircraft to an election rally. And he isn’t even the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces!

Did the IAF Chief give his assent? Did the PMO apply through proper channels? Meaning, IAF aircraft are no buggy ride from RashtrapatiBhavan to Vijay Path. The IAF is armed forces and the armed forces should be kept away from political jamborees. If NarendraModi wanted to strike AkhileshYadav with a couple of political barbs that doesn’t mean he can commandeer an IAF aircraft!

Gentlemen, the IAF is to patrol the nation’s skies. No one, not even the Prime Minister of India, can take the IAF for granted. Right now we are nowhere at war with any country and the Prime Minister cannot just break ranks and fly to an election rally in a C-130 Hercules. There is an IAF aircraft assigned for the Prime Minister, but that is to travel overseas on official trips, like to the recent ‘Blah. Blah. Blah’ meet at Glasgow, Scotland.

And who is paying for the C-130 trip to KharwalKheri in Purvanchal? That was jet fuel meant for legit IAF flights gone down the drain. Prime Minister NarendraModi gave a speech at KharwalKheri on the e-way and he spoke of the IAF and the “expressway runway” for landing IAF fighter jets. All fine, but don’t forget this was out and out election spiel he was spinning into a fine yarn.

You know, to reiterate, this guy is a different cup of tea and you can’t even say ‘WahTaj!’ He stood there, on the election-eve podium, and went into a slow ramble, much like Donald Trump used to after deplaning on a US runway, but then Trump used his own aircraft, one he bought with his own sweet millions. The IAF is not the Prime Minister of India’s private carrier, like the USAF is not the POTUS’s.

So, let’s sit back and decide whether Modi the other day was doing an election rally for the BJP/Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or was he inaugurating an expressway and dedicating it to the nation/IAF/the people of Uttar Pradesh? He could have been inaugurating an e-way tarmac for IAF fighter jets, but even for that he cannot go in a C-130 IAF.

Obviously not, Modi wasn’t on IAF business. He was on the expressway asking for votes for Yogi Adityanath who faces a tough election in 2022. His victory or loss will have a say on Modi’s own chances in 2024. For now the jury is out. That being said, Prime Minister NarendraModi had no business to take the IAF’s C-130 J Super Hercules to an election rally on the Purvanchal Expressway. You might as well have handed over the coordinates of one of India’s strategic assets to Xi Jinping in an envelope. (IPA Service)