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The Gujarat Beechcraft Incident - 1965

On September 19, 1965, when the second India Pakistan war (commonly known as the 1965 war) was on, a civilan aircraft – a ‘Beechcraft-18’, an eight seater passenger plane belonging to the Govt. of Gujarat, took off from Ahmedabad with a VIP passenger – the Chief Minister of Gujarat – Balwantrai Mehta. His co-passengers included his wife Mrs. Sarojben Mehta, three members of his personal staff, and one reporter from “The Gujarat Samachar” The crew consisted of the pilot Jehangir ‘Jangoo’ Engineer. Jangoo finished an illustrious career with the Indian Air Force and then with Indian Airlines, before being employed by the Govt. of Maharashtra as Chief Pilot. At the time of the incident he was on loan to the Gujarat Government. His co-pilot was D’Costa. (Jangoo’s family holds the unique distinction of sending four of its sons to the IAF. All of them became pilots. One rose to the rank of Chief of Air Staff, and another was the Air Officer Commanding, Western Command, during the 1971 war
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The truth about the sinking of 'PNS Ghazi'

Context In the 1971 India - Pakistan war, Pakistan's submarine - PNS (Pakistan Navy Ship) GHAZI, was destroyed and sunk off the coast of Vishakhapatnam (India's Naval Base on the East Coast facing the Bay of Bengal) sometime between December 3, 1971 (the day Pakistani Air Force fighter planes attacked major air bases in India, and started the war), and December 5, 1971. India claimed that Ghazi was destroyed and sunk in course of Naval operations, by INS Rajput (a guided missile destroyer of the Indian Navy). This Naval victory was widely publicized by the Indian Navy and the Government, as part of its war time propaganda to demoralize the enemy - Pakistan, and to raise the morale in India in general. However, with passage of time, the credibility of this claim waned, as various agencies - individuals who saw action in the Naval war, and war historians delved deep into the information available. To this day, it is not clear at all, as to how the GHAZI sank. 

Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh MVC - An erstwhile Maharaja and a forgotten Soldier

Most Indians do NOT as a matter of habit, remember our National heroes especially t hose, that put their lives at peril to guard the frontiers of our Country, and made sure that we live - independent and free, each day. One such soldier of the soil - Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh MVC - also the Maharaja of Jaipur, fought bravely for the Nation, during the 1971 Indo - Pak war. So bravely, that the Nation decorated him with India's second highest gallantry award - the Maha Vir Chakra. Yet, when he died on April 17, 2011, his death went virtually un-noticed in the backdrop of  the cricket, the scams and the other problems that took precedence in this Country. Sawai Bhawani Singh Bahadur was born on October 22 1931 to Sawai Man "Jai" Singh II (Maharaja of Jaipur from 1911) and Marudhar Kanwar of Jodhpur, the first of his father's three wives (who would die when her son was 13). Given the nickname "Bubbles" by his British nanny because of the

When the Prime Minister of India walked out of a plane crash...

This is a story about when the plane carrying the Prime Minister of India, crashed, and the Prime Minister walked out of it virtually unscathed! However, five members of the crew - the best aviators in the Indian Air Force, perished in the crash. November 4, 1977  The Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai was scheduled to visit the North Eastern States of India, on an official tour. He was to fly from Delhi to Jorhat (Assam), and for this journey an aircraft of the Indian Air Force HQ Communications Squadron (also known as the  Comm Sqdn. or the VIP squadron), was to ferry the PM and his entourage to Jorhat, and return to Delhi.  Accompanying the PM were his son Kantibhai Desai, Mr. John Lobo(Chief of the Intelligence Bureau) and Mr. PK Thungon, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. The crew comprised of Wing Commander Clarence Joseph D'Lima, Squadron Leader Mathew Cryiac (pilot in command, and co-pilot respectively), Wing Commander Joginder Singh (Navigator)

The Art of Living (Irresponsibly)

The Art of Living Foundation decides to organize a World Culture Festival. The venue they choose is the the ecologically sensitive area along the banks of the Yamuna river, between Delhi and NOIDA. The space required for the event - a staggering 1000 acres of marshland along the riverbank. The stage itself is expected to have an area of 7 acres. And an 3.5 million people are expected to storm into the Capital over three days. The 1000 acres consisting primarily of shrubs and grass, is reported to have been reportedly  flattened, with most of the flora and fauna destroyed. This is in preparation of the event. What will happen when 3.5 million people attend the festival? All of them will eat, litter, use the area to urinate and defecate, and pollute the environment to an extent that is only left to imagination. What will happen to the already congested roads when the additional traffic burden related to 3.5 million additional people hits the City? This scenario brings to focus many

What is Ánti-National'

What happened in JNU a little over a week back, is unprecedented. In independent India, for decades institutions like the JNU have fostered a culture that promoted free thinking and speech, anti-establishment voices, protests and so on. The thought process largely was, that in a true democracy, the voice of dissent must be not only allowed, but encouraged. There are numerous instances in World history, where such strong voices forced the establish to change not only National policy but even political changes at National level. The movement against the US involvement in the Vietnam war, for instance, began among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses. Later this movement gained national prominence in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. Closer - at home, the Anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 in Tamil Nadu, where the Congress led Government tried to enforce Hindi as a language in Tamil Nadu, ultimately resulted in significant