BANGALORE, November 5: An Air Headquarters notification on the fifth pay commission has pitted Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots in a dog-fight against each other - for the first time in IAF history, helicopter pilots and fighter pilots have been discriminated in their flying allowance: Rs 2,700 per month for chopper and transport flyers, and Rs 7,000 for a fighter.Top IAF sources, confirming the move, said that the proposal had not yet been accepted by the government, but was likely to go through. The gap, though it may close, (to about Rs 5,600 for fighters) will not actually be eliminated.

The move has chopper pilots hopping mad, and, they feel, with good reason. ``This is supposed to be something about combat risk. The thing is how many times have fighters been in action since the 1971 war?'' fumed a chopper pilot to The Indian Express. ``We are the ones in the front line, facing attack. We are the ones who are getting shot down in Siachen. Choppers fly around 50 hours in a day in these sectors. We are the one who are getting all the gallantry awards. Operation Blue Star was ours. Siachen and Op-Rakshak (the J & K theater) was ours, Sri Lanka-ops was ours.''

The IAF has about 1,000 fighter pilots, and 840 helicopter pilots - the latter's number is growing. ``The fighter pilot lobby is afraid of losing clout. They want to make sure they do not lose their elite status,'' said a highly placed IAF source.

A top IAF fighter pilot, however, pointed out that the number of fatalities amongst fighter crew was going up. The IAF, over the last five years, has been losing about 20 planes a year, and a calculated 66 per cent are fighter planes. ``We also pay a higher insurance premium.''

What is more, he contends, transport flyers have the option of moving to the enormously lucrative civil airline sector. ``Consequently, candidates for the fighter stream are reducing. The idea is to give more incentives,'' he told this correspondent.

But a chopper pilot questions: ``There are a sizable number of vacancies in the chopper pilots. So after training, we get sent there. It is not that we are any less good. So why should we be penalised?''

``Of the 20 plus Air Marshals that we have had, only one has been a chopper pilot,'' notes a Group Captain. ``The number is only slightly better for Air Vice Marshals.'' The chopper pilot community feels that this kind of discrimination is all the more de-moralising, when the world over, ``emphasis is shifting to using choppers in combat. After the Gulf War, the Americans have begun to give more importance to choppers. But we are doing this. One Royal Air Force Air Chief was a chopper pilot. Can we imagine that happening here?''

One retired veteran fighter pilot, however, speaking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, felt that this action ``is actually in line with other Air Forces. ``The French Air Force actually gives more money to a fighter flying at sonic speeds, than to one who does not. To use an unfortunate analogy, why does a race driver get more than a taxi driver?''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.