A time-limit clause recently introduced by the government in conferring gallantry medals is blocking a well-deserved honour to a valiant young air warrior who is believed to have made the supreme sacrifice in the India-Pakistan war in 1971.
Almost three decades after Flying Officer K.P. Muralidharan was first declared ‘missing in action’ and then ‘presumed killed [for official purposes]’ in a rather unsuccessful air raid over Peshawar in Pakistan on the second day of the war, a national honour for gallantry still eludes the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot, who was with the magnificent No.20 Squadron ‘Lightnings.’
Apparently, what is holding up his case is the time-limit clause recently introduced by the government in conferring such medals. “I am given to understand that acting on my petition to Defence Minister A.K. Antony last year, the Air Force headquarters pitched for the award of the Maha Vir Chakra to Muralidharan after it was convinced that the officer had gone down fighting like a hero. But a two-year bracket, recently introduced by the government, has left the case in a limbo,” says K. Rajendran Nair, married to Muralidharan’s cousin and a crusader for honour to the flying officer.
Last week, the former Supreme Court Judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer, despatched a powerfully worded letter to Mr. Antony strongly advocating Muralidharan’s case.
Terming the alleged denial of the Maha Vir Chakra a “betrayal of the nation’s duty to honour an act of self-sacrifice,” he wrote: “Those who plead the bar of limitation to withhold this legitimate honour have done an act of disgrace by the neglect… I entreat you on behalf of the nation to hasten and reverse the neglect so far made.”
Born to Padamanabhan Thirumulpad of Nilambur Kovilakam (seat of erstwhile royal Zamorins) and Malathi, 26-year-old Muralidharan was hardly two years into service when he took off from Pathankot on a Hunter aircraft on that fateful day, December 4, 1971, for a strafing run on the Peshawar airfield.
Squadron Leader K.N. Bajpai, flying another Hunter, was also part of the mission. They were intercepted by Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) F-86 Sabres as it was the IAF’s second attack on Peshawar that day.
Flying to Peshawar meant stretching the Hunter to its limit, which forbade any probable combat as it would cause fuel shortage. While Bajpai managed to return, Muralidharan went missing in the ensuing dogfight with a Sabres.
Over time, it was deemed that he was among the 54 Prisoners of War Pakistan was believed to have interned in its jails after the war.
That was the case until a few years ago when a retired PAF officer, Wing Commander Salim Mirza Baig, who was in the thick of action in 1971, revealed in a personal war account that the Hunter flown by Muralidharan was among the two Indian fighter aircraft brought down by him in separate air battles in the war. According to Wing Commander Baig’s version of the battle over Peshawar, he admires the Hunter he took on, calling it a ‘tough nut to crack’ and conclusively says that the pilot was killed in air combat.
The second aircraft brought down by Wing Commander Baig was a Gnat flown by Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, who took on six marauding Sabres over Srinagar before being gunned down. Sekhon was posthumously decorated with the Param Vir Chakra, the IAF’s only Param Vir Chakra till date. “Even as the time limit is said to be standing in way of a belated honour to the war hero, there’s precedence to the contrary,” says Mr. Nair.
“Squadron Leader A.B. Devayya was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra 23 years after the 1965 war, based on a PAF officer’s account. After the Kargil war, Pakistan conferred its highest military award, Nishan-e-Haider, posthumously on Captain Karnal Sher Khan based on an Indian officer’s war account. What, then, impedes Muralidharan’s case?” As Mr. Iyer highlights in his letter to Mr. Antony: “… Bureaucracy, sometimes, delays and in an ungrateful manner defeats what is due.”
