After a long time, the Indian Air Force inducts new and advanced, much-needed fighter jets to increase and upgrade the nation’s defence capability. The first five of the long-awaited Rafale Jets arrived in India and landed at Ambala Air Force station. According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) this includes three single seater and two twin seater aircraft. There is how Twitter reacted to the arrival of the Rafale jets.
The Rafale deal had been in the works for many years. During the last few years of policy paralysis during the UPA government, it made very little progress. It took a further six years of the NDA government for the aircraft to actually arrive in India.
When new aircraft are inducted into the Air Force, there is a tradition to welcome them with a water salute.
COAS RKS Bhadauria was there to welcome the pilots and the machines as they flew in.
The impressive specs of the aircraft and its advanced capabilities were widely shared on social media.
Group Captain Harkirat Singh, led the group to fly in the aircrafts and also commands the Golden Arrow 17 Squadron Rafale based at Ambala. Gp Capt Rohit Kataria, Wing Commanders Abhishek Tripathi, Manish Singh were the others.
Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad has the distinction of being the first Indian to fly a Rafale and has also trained other officers for the platform.
Videos like this – people awed by the landing jets – were circulating on social media.
With defence procurements being such a long and arduous process in India, we have few such occasions.
At times like this, Indians remember to feel proud of our military, its personnel and their incredible courage.
Some feel that defence acquisitions are meaningless for those who are the poorest and most distressed in our country.
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has made many movies filled with nationalistic zeal and people feel that the arrival of the Rafales may have given him fresh inspiration.
Even as the nation celebrated the arrival of the Rafales, some wanted only to take digs at our lamentably ineffectual and largely irrelevant opposition.
The always incisive and topical Satish Acharya created this cartoon on the occasion of the arrival of the Rafale planes. He also took a dig at the Prime Minister’s failure to name China and its aggressions against India during his address to the nation.
People on either side of the ideological divide will try to get political mileage from the arrival of the Rafale Jets. However there is no doubt that the acquisition of these jets strengthens our defence capabilities and gives us all pause for cheer in these difficult pandemic-dominated times.
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