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Wages Of Dissent: IAF's Torture Cells

All those who breached discipline in the agitation against pilot-ground staff pay disparities are taught a barbaric lesson

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Wages Of Dissent: IAF's Torture Cells
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THE sleepy town of Hashimara on the West Bengal-Assam border, which has an Indian Air Force (IAF) base 20 km away, makes for an unlikely centre of controversy. A spate of petitions have been filed before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Delhi High Court alleging the use of the air base as a torture camp to interrogate technical officers and airmen who dared to protest against the discrepancies in salary between pilots and technical staff after the flying allowance for the former was raised last year.

While almost 100 officers have been blacklisted for the Hashimara camp, those who have already been sent there have horrifying tales to relate. Among those who have faced the interrogators are: group captains M. Saxena, Naveen Verma, V.K. Verma, wing commanders R. Vijayavargiya,

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Jagdal, Santosh Sharma, Vashim, D.B.S. Sethi, R.N. Gaur and squadron leader Rajesh Mishra. All of them were lodged in dark, isolated cells and, but for breaks for food, the interrogation was relentless. Such is the scare that some officers have sought medical checkups prior to and after their interrogation.

Questioned on the allegations, defence minister George Fernandes refused to comment, saying he would wait for the report of the Ajit Kumar committee, which has been constituted to look into the unrest in the IAF. The committee was to have submitted its report by the end of March, but has been given a month's extension.

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 A petition filed in the Delhi High Court by air commodore S.K. Mishra, who fears he is also on the hitlist, paints a frightening picture of what happens to those sent to Hashimara: "A number of senior air force officers have already been taken to Hashimara...in February-March 1998. (Some of them) have confirmed that they have been physically assaulted and ill-treated by a team of officers deputed from Air Headquarters...to forcibly make them agree to acts of sedition and subversion which they did not commit." According to the petition, the officers who have been carrying out the interrogation are air vice marshal P.K. Mukherjee, air commodores R.C. Jain and P.C.S. Rautela and group captain V. Pradhan.

The petition continues: "The officers who have been physically assaulted have been totally broken by the terror tactics. They have been threatened with dire consequences...if they make any complaint to authorities of their ill treatment." Sadly, the officers themselves are in no state to make any such complaints. Veritable nervous wrecks, they cannot even speak coherently. It is their families who have taken up the fight.

For instance, wing commander H.K. Nagpal's case is being represented by his mother before the NHRC. For Nagpal, an expert in the repair and maintenance of the IL-76 Russian transport planes, February 18 started like any other day. But by noon came orders to rush to Jorhat, Assam, for the repair of an AN-32. A day later, Nagpal realised that the Jorhat visit had nothing to do with the "exigencies of duty" and that he had been taken, by deceit, to the Hashimara base for the most tortuous three weeks of his life. He had become a hostage to the very force that he had been serving for over two decades. Nearly a month later, when he finally managed to get out of the interrogation camp—thanks to his wife running from pillar to post in Delhi— Nagpal has lost several kilos.

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The wing commander's mother, Vidyawanti, said in her petition before the NHRC: "My son was illegally confined to Hashimara, then taken to Jorhat where he was kept in the mental ward of the Air Force Hospital and then, despite the fact that the court of inquiry proceedings were over on March 6, my son instead of being sent back to Delhi was first unfortunately taken to Tezpur and then to Shillong, where he's presently in captivity with the eastern air command of the IAF. My son, who is already suffering from trauma, is also not in a position to define to us the reasons for which he is being detained in Shillong."

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The tales of torture Nagpal has to tell would make anyone wince. In Jodhpur, an officer was made to sit on a heater while being questioned. Some at Hashimara are believed to have been administered mind-altering truth serums while others were kept awake for several days to ensure that they recounted "everything that they knew".

What happened with Nagpal is just part of the story. Officers from Bangalore, Rajokri, Chandigarh, Jamnagar and Hindon have all been picked up and the unlucky among them have been sent to Hashimara. There is the case of air commodore J.S. Kalra, a technical officer against whom a court of inquiry was ordered after protests took place at Chandigarh over the disparities in salaries. Kalra was out of Chandigarh when the protests took place. Now, Kalra's name has been dropped from the list of candidates short-listed for promotion as air vice marshals. Wing commander K.R. Nagesh was placed under house arrest in Delhi for writing a letter to his seniors to look into his grievances. The officer's case will now be coming up for court martial. Says his lawyer Narendra Kaushik: "Nagesh had merely written to the IAF for redressal of his grievance. He is now being subjected to court martial.

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This is happening to an officer who has been brilliant all through his career—a fact accepted by the IAF in court. Now, if they want to punish an officer for writing to seniors which is allowed under the rules, there is little that can be done." IAF authorities say that all the officers against whom a crackdown has been ordered had raised their voice against the higher flying allowance to fighter pilots. Transport pilots, who were awarded a flying allowance a scale lower than the fighter pilots, had also resorted to a go-slow agitation last year. This resulted in a disruption of supplies to forward areas.

The media focus on the "discontent" within the IAF seems to have triggered off a damage control exercise by Air Headquarters, whereby the strategy was to keep the transport pilots happy (their flying allowance has been increased) while cracking the whip on the technical staff on the ground. Every single officer sent to Hashimara and against whom a court of inquiry has been set up is from the technical branch. This line of action has only confirmed for many airmen and officers the traditional misgiving in the force that the ground staff gets a raw deal.

 Senior IAF officers justify the harsh measures resorted to, saying they had to contain what was a large-scale revolt in the ranks being actively promoted by senior technical officers. What they do not dwell on at any length, however, is the choice of methods adopted to break the back of those who resorted to "acts of indiscipline".

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Does two wrongs make a right, ask the ground staff? The crackdown may have stemmed the voices of protest, but discontent and divide are the result of crushing dissent with a heavy hand. Officers on the technical side point out that the struggle for better salaries will continue. The tales of torture of their officers has further disillusioned the average airman, confirming his fears about his place in an unjust hierarchy. Which cannot augur well for the air force.

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