{"id":315501,"date":"2019-10-08T08:45:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T08:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=315501"},"modified":"2019-10-08T08:45:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T08:45:14","slug":"abhinandan-varthaman-flies-mig-bison-on-air-force-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/abhinandan-varthaman-flies-mig-bison-on-air-force-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Abhinandan Varthaman flies MiG Bison\u00a0on Air Force Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-315503 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mig.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"551\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/10\/mig.jpg 551w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/10\/mig-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/10\/mig-504x420.jpg 504w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px\" \/>Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman on Tuesday led the formation of MiG-21 Bison fighter jets during the Air Force Day parade at the Hindon Air Base in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Ghaziabad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Abhinandan led a group of three MiG-21s flying in avenger formation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, was the chief guest at the 87th Air Force Day celebrations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Abhinandan\u2019s aerial manoeuvre was greeted with huge cheers from the crowds gathered at the Hindon Air Base.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Abhinandan Varthman was captured by Pakistan\u2019s army on February 27 after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets during aerial combat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Before his jet was hit, he had shot down Pakistani F-16 fighter. Abhinandan was later released by Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his wishes in a tweet this morning: &#8220;Today, on Air Force Day, a proud nation expresses gratitude to our air warriors and their families. The Indian Air Force continues to serve India with utmost dedication and excellence.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also gave her wishes to IAF on their 87th anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cSincere and heart-felt greetings to the @IAF_MCC on their 87th anniversary. Your recent successful operation in Balakot overwhelmed all Indians. Professionalism, great leadership, and excellence are your hallmark. Wishing you every success in the future too,\u201d Sitharaman tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman on Tuesday led the formation of MiG-21 Bison fighter jets during the Air Force Day parade at the Hindon Air Base in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Ghaziabad. Abhinandan led a group of three MiG-21s flying in avenger formation. Chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, was the chief guest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":315503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,2009,2014,2015],"tags":[10968,5296],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315504,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315501\/revisions\/315504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/315503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}