As India debates the empowerment of women in the 21st century, Gunjan Saxena is now a talk of the town with Netflix streaming Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, a film that captures the life and times of the first woman IAF Officer of Independent India.
Gunjan Saxena fought odds to make her presence felt in the forces, she also took to the battlefield during the Kargil war, now she is not just part of defence folklore, she is also the subject of a Bollywood flick that is currently running on Netlflix. Daughter to the iconic Sridevi, Jahnvi Kapoor is seen playing the role of the pilot. Along with star Pankaj Tripathi in a lead role.
Most know her as the first woman IAF pilot. A lady who along with Flight Lieutenant Srividya Rajan rescued soldiers in Kargil War in 1999. Her inherent heroine within got her the Shaurya Vir award for displaying courage and grit during the war. Serving as a short service Commissioned Officer in the Air Force, she hailed from a family that served the Army. Unlike Gunjan, women today have a permanent commission. Both her father and brother were in the Indian Army and she too carried forward that legacy.
A student of Hansraj College in Delhi she cracked the SSB entrance exam and joined the Indian Air Force in the year 1994. Moving to the Srinagar Air Field after joining IAF, she was not averse to discrimination as the only woman pilot among the male-dominated group of officers. Her entry in the academy made many uncomfortable.
In 1999, when the Kargil conflict was on the rise, she continued to fly. She flew over the Kargil–Tololing–Batalik area to carry out surveys to report activity. Gunjan went for medical evacuations when casualties were reported. She is reported to have had a close shave with an enemy missile. Despite that, she continued with her duty. She landed on the helipad and waited for injured soldiers to be carried to her chopper and successfully rescued them.
Largil happened when in the month of February 1999, the Indian and Pakistani side were at loggerheads. In a tense situation, both mutually agreed to retreat and call truce at the mountainous terrain of Kargil. This was a move made based on the Shimla Agreement of 1972.
While the Indian side honoured the agreement, the Pakistani side backstabbed India. In a major buildup, Pakistan sent over 5000 soldiers to the areas of Kargil in a dastardly act of betrayal. By doing so they managed to capture several checkpoints on the sly. Pakistan's move was it would target the Jammu-Srinagar highway, after which Kashmir would be forced to separate from India persuading a negotiation with Kashmir.
News of this betrayal was first broken on May 3 by a shepherd who spotted enemy activity and a consequent buildup at the Indian territory. According to information received after this, three infantry brigades of Pakistan Army captured more than 400 peaks like India Gate, Helmet Top, Shivaling Post, Rockinob and 4875 Batra Top including Tololing, Tololing Top, Tiger Hill and Rhino Hon.
When a patrol team of 5 Indian soldiers reached there, the Pakistani soldiers brutally murdered the Indian soldiers and handed back the bodies of the soldiers by mutilating them. In a short span, Pakistan had taken under its control 150 kilometers of land.
Seeing Pakistan’s misadventures, the Indian Army launched Operation Vijay which went into the annals of History as one of the bravest to secure Mother India to evacuate its territory from Pakistani intruders which started the Kargil war. Between May and July, the Pakistanis were pushed back by the use of brute force. Pakistani Army personnel were on the high hills of Kargil, India was strategically lower, but the Indian soldiers showed indomitable courage and killed every single soldier of the Pakistani Army. It is said that during this war, more than 3 thousand soldiers of Pakistan were killed by the Indian Army. However, we too lost our 527, while 1363 jawans were injured. At the same time, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force also played an important role in the Kargil War. During the Kargil War, the Indian Air Force had operated the operation White Sea and during this time Pakistan soldiers were bombed from a height of about 32 thousand feet. The Air Force used the MiG-27 and the MiG-29 to repel Pak troops. In the Kargil War, the MiG-27 bombed with great precision. The MiG-27 is said to have been given the name of Bahadur to show its might in Kargil, while Pakistani soldiers called it a witch. However, the MiG-27 has now been retired from the Indian Air Force.
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