“I was incredulous. I could not believe that a former chief of Air Staff who’s been under investigation for three-four years was arrested, when to the best of my knowledge he had been cooperating fully”, says former Air Chief Marshal Anil Yashwant Tipnis in a conversation with The Quint.
Ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi was on 9 December arrested and remanded to four days in CBI custody. The investigating agency that is probing the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland scam told the court that the former air chief had reduced the service ceiling or the altitude at which a chopper can fly from the original 6,000 m to 4,500 m to favour the UK-based chopper manufacturer.
No Air Chief Can Take a Unilateral Decision
In his defence, SP Tyagi claimed that the decision to lower the service altitude was taken by a group of senior officials and that no changes were made while he was service chief between 2004 and 2007.
“In any case, it would’ve been impossible for any service chief to take such a decision unilaterally”, argues former Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis.
Selective Disclosures to the Media Suit the Government’s Political Agenda?
Incidentally, the proposal to upgrade the fleet used to ferry VVIPs was first forwarded by Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis himself. In his six years as Defence Minister between 1998 and 2004, George Fernandes visited Siachen a record 18 times. He was being flown in the ageing Russian-made Mi8 when Air Chief Marshal Anil Yashwant Tipnis wrote to the Ministry of Defence about the need to induct safer, more modern aircraft for difficult terrains with no runways.
Ten years later in 2010, the Government of India signed a deal with the UK-based AgustaWestland to manufacture 12 AW-101 choppers.
Two years later, media reports prompted the CBI to launch an investigation in the defence deal.
Former Air chief AY Tipnis believes the CBI is planting selective disclosures in the media to cater to the government’s political agenda.
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
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