IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Saturday said that all three service chiefs can meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi one-on-one every month to discuss matters of importance.
Air Chief Marshal Raha also revealed that a few modern Mi-17 V5 helicopters of the IAF would perform VVIP transportation roles after the cancellation of the VVIP helicopter deal with Agusta this year. He also said the proposed post of a permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee is envisaged to be filled by the seniormost serving service chief.
When asked about the significance of the recent Chinese border incursions in Ladakh that had led to a two-week stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops, Air Chief Marshal Raha said, “It’s always been a mystery about the way incursions take place across the LAC, the way this gets timed with various visits... We all know that in diplomacy, a lot of signalling is done and specially so, (from) our northern neighbour. It could be part of some signalling to my mind but I’m not going to guess what it really means... We thought we are going to make progress on these issues but this (the incursion) happened. We are also trying to find out why it happened,” the IAF chief said. “There are differences in perception as to where the LAC is ... This is leading to face-offs. However, our security forces are following policies... We are not giving ground to anyone,” he said.
Both India and China have different perceptions of the Line of Actual Control and experts point out that the timing of such incursions could be China’s way of saying that the border dispute with India remains a serious issue.