Arjan Singh The man who was our Marshal

Roopinder Singh

Today marks the birth anniversary of one of the most illustrious Indians, a self-made man who devoted his life to the Indian Air Force. He rose to the top, and then was honoured with the Marshal’s baton, making him the only 5-star general of IAF.

Let’s go back in time a bit. The year was 2002, the date April 22, the place Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan. Present on the occasion were Vice-President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Air Chief Marshal Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy and a large number of retired and serving military officers.

The Defence Secretary, Yogendra Narian, read the citation that concluded thus:

“His inspiring career, towering personality and distinguished reputation have endowed him with a unique stature in society and have earned him the respect of the nation. Even till date, he actively associates himself with various welfare activities of the Air Force as a father figure of the service, which he nurtured from its fledgling days. For his most outstanding and extraordinary service to the nation, the President of India is pleased to confer upon Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh the rank of Marshal of the Indian Air Force.”

President K R Narayanan handed the baton to Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, as the lady of the day, Mrs Teji Arjan Singh, sporting a russet organza sari beamed. The interaction over tea after the brief event showed the regard that the new, and only, 5-star general of the IAF was held in.

When we are facing a crisis, our mind is attracted to great leaders, present or past. A person who stood tall among us, both literally and figuratively, was MIAF Arjan Singh DFC. Here was a man who led the Indian Air Force to victory so well that the position he held was upgraded. He represented India as Ambassador to Switzerland and Kenya, and was also Lt Governor of Delhi.

Born on April 15, 1919, Arjan Singh studied in Government College, Lahore, before going to RAF Cranwell for training as a pilot. He was commissioned in 1939 and joined No. 1 Squadron in Ambala, shortly after it went to Karachi and then to the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Here are some of the events that stand out in the long and illustrious career that followed:

“In 1940, my Hawker Audax was shot down in the NWFP by the Pathans. I crashed in a dry stream where a fight was going on between the British troops on one side and the Pathans on the other. My gunner, Gulam Ali, was injured in the crash. I stayed with him till he could be evacuated. But it was not much, within two weeks I was flying again—in the same area. Our fighting in the NWFP prepared us for the fight against the Japanese.”

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Squadron Leader Arjan Singh went to Imphal in 1943 as Squadron Commander. The Japanese had laid a siege to the Imphal Valley. The squadron played a major role in helping Imphal to withstand the siege by attacking Japanese troops and supply lines. The leadership of Squadron Leader Arjan Singh was noticed and he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in June, 1944 by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South-East Asia during World War II. “For a young man to get such a medal in front of his own squadron is a great satisfaction. I was a part of the squadron, and they were my part. Even now, I am in touch with at least five of the people who were with me in Imphal, three of them are Airmen and two are officers,” he told me during an interview while I was writing his biography.

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“I am no longer a Jat,” said MIAF Arjan Singh when he called me after selling off his farm near Delhi in 2004. With the active endorsement by Teji, their son Arvind and daughter Asha, the proceeds, became the corpus for The Marshal of Air Force and Mrs Arjan Singh Trust to provide financial relief for ex-IAF personnel and their dependents who need assistance. Here was a man who showed by his conduct that it means to be a leader. RIP MIAF Arjan Singh DFC.

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