Gunjan Saxena, The Lady IAF Fighter

 

Gunjan Saxena, the lady IAF fighter who served 8 years in the Indian Air Force. At the time of commission in IAF she was a helicopter pilot as a "Flight Lieutenant". In the 1999 Kargil war, she was one of the female pilots to take part in the Kargil war. She was also listed as a "first female pilot to fly in a combat zone". She was deployed in the Kargil along with the other woman of the IAF was flight lieutenant Srividya Rajan .They were the first women in the IAF history to deploy with the Cheetah helicopters in a war flying zone. In Kargil, her main duty was to evacuate the troops, transport the supplies and the surveillance. After the Kargil war, she was getting "Shaurya Veer" award from a civilian organization in Uttar Pradesh.

(The Netflix movie, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, we saw that she was getting a Shaurya Chakra that is totally wrong information. Gunjan Saxena, she claimed that she had never gotten a Shaurya Chakra.)

In 1994 the first batch of women pilots, including Gunjan Saxena were trained at the Yelahanka Air Force Station, Bengaluru. In his trainee career, Ms. Saxena said that IAF officers never differentiate between the male and female pilots. IAF has always made sure that the organization is gender neutral and has always given an equal chance between female and male pilots .Their instructors always said that, "The machine will not know whether a man is flying it or a woman is flying it".

In 1996 she joins as a pilot in the IAF. She was first posted in Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir as a part of the 132 FAC(Forward Area Control). When the Kargil war arises between the India and Pakistan, Gunjan Saxena and his teammate flight lieutenant Srividya Rajan got an opportunity to serve a nation. The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force carried two major operations during Kargil war, "Operation Vijay" and "Operation Safed Sagar". As a part of "Operation Vijay" she was flying in the forward areas like Tolling, Dras, Batalik sector. Her main task was to evacuate the injured soldiers, surveillance of the Pakistani soldiers and supplies the important equipment to the Indian Army. In a war zone she was also missing from the enemy missile and gunfire. She had evacuated more than 900 soldiers, including Sahid. In 2004, she ended his journey as a female helicopter pilot because at that time, there weren't a permanent commission for the women in the Indian Air Force.

On 12 August, Dharma Productions and Zee Studios release a biopic movie on Gunjan Saxena, a brave female pilot in the IAF (Movie - Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl). First of all the movie shows us a wrong portrayal of gender bias in the IAF and she didn't get a Shaurya Chakra instead of Shaurya Veer. This is effecting a wrong impact and a negative light on the movie. The producers are just making a commercial movie like all other movies.

After that IAF has written a letter to Dharma Productions and the CBFC (Central Board Of Film Certification).IAF told CBFC that, "IAF as a service has always ensured that the organization is gender neutral and has always provided an equal opportunity to both male and women personnel". Some scenes and dialogues in the film also projected us the IAF in a bad light. Many ex-army officers, Gunjan's fellow batch mate and wind commander Deepa Nailwal and also the Defence Ministry marked the gender conflict in the movie.

The IAF advised the production team to delete some scenes and also modify them, but the production team said that, "However we, are proposing a media plan in the run up to the release and inserting a disclaimer in the movie". Defence Ministry also said to Ministry of IT and broadcasting team that production houses would definitely obtain a "No Objection " certificate from the Ministry of Defence Before the broadcasting any film or documentary and also the web series that's based on an armed forces theme. Defense Ministry also said that, this kind of negative impact hurt the sentiments of the armed forces of our country .

In this movie , I would definitely recommend Taapsee Pannu as a female pilot.I wouldn't recommend Karan Johar as a director.