'Papa Bravo' Nair, IAF Top Gun To Rocketman

BHOPAL: Call sign: 'Papa'. Ensign: The golden wings of Gaganyaan.

Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair looks like he was born with the flight suit (now space suit), but how did the ace test pilot, fighter pilot and top gun get his nickname 'Papa'?

Over a quarter century ago, when Nair transitioned from the ragad-patti of National Defence Academy (NDA) to Air Force Academy (AFA), someone wanted to know his name. "Flight Cadet PB Nair, sir," he replied. "PB what?" was the question. Pat came the reply, "Papa Bravo Nair, sir." And the name stuck.

Not one to ever have things lost in translation, Group Captain Nair has always been clear about his target.

"He never lets anything get between him and his ambition," said one who knows him closely.

From the early days at NDA, when every first-termer struggles to find his bearings - especially those from civilian backgrounds, like Nair - what propelled 'Papa' was a never-say-die spirit. A 'Killer' attitude, as his NDA Squadron calls itself.

"There's not an exam he has not topped," said one of his Kilo squadron mates. Nair stood 27th in his NDA qualifying exam - quite a feat considering the pass rate is less than 0.1%. He was a 'gold torchie' in all six terms at NDA - a badge given for excellence in academics. Again, an astounding effort when merely surviving the ragda of military training needs one to dig deep for every last drop of josh, every single day.

Nair passed out of NDA among the top rankers and moved to AFA, where he again excelled in every aspect of flying. He won the coveted Sword of Honour and was commissioned as a fighter pilot. He would move on to becoming a test pilot - the absolute pinnacle of flight skills. "Becoming a test pilot means completing an MTech course in just 11 months while risking your life four times a day while you take planes beyond their envelope," explained an ace test pilot. One needs nerves of steel, and ice-cold blood in your veins to be a test pilot, said another, who has been there and flown that.

Nair aced this, too.

What RS results tell us about BJP's Mission 370
Yet another Rajya Sabha election has triggered flux in the opposition camp, with Congress and Samajwadi Party left embarrassed by wholesale cross-voting by their legislators in Himachal Pradesh and UP. It is another display of BJP's strategy of churning out victories to create an air of inevitability.

BJP has 15 fewer MLAs than Congress in the 68-member Himachal assembly, so pulling off the RS victory would have required humongous effort and motivation. In Lucknow also, weaning away Akhilesh Yadav's young leaders would have required advance planning. Were two RS berths worth so much sweat and moral opprobrium?

This is where the opposition has not understood BJP under Narendra Modi, which makes no secret of its desire to create a political hegemony not seen since the days of one-party rule under Congress. The RS polls followed the same playbook that was revealed a decade ago. BJP showed its ambition in not only Lucknow and Shimla but also Bengaluru, where numbers are heavily stacked in Congress' favour. Even if it failed in Karnataka, BJP abided by the age-old cricketing wisdom that "you don't change the winning formula", results notwithstanding.

Himachal CM Sukhvinder Sukhu fell to the arrogance of numbers, not realising BJP has been exploiting in-house schisms in Congress. A lifetime dream of CM-ship now lies in tatters in just 14 months. The likes of Kamal Nath learnt it the hard way, but the wily Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan was alert to the possibility in Corona-era 2020, just like Siddaramaiah-DK Shivakumar were in Karnataka to repulse BJP's charge on Tuesday.

In the wake of BJP conjuring up another victory from what would have been an upper house election of mere academic interest, the opposition's delayed counter for the 2024 contest through alliance-making stands severely dented. That is BJP's big achievement this time. The opposition could, or rather should, have been alert, given that the last 10 years are littered with examples of BJP focusing on victory at any cost - be it Chandigarh mayoral elections that brought disrepute or Greater Hyderabad municipal polls or Rajya Sabha or assembly or Lok Sabha contests. The idea is to keep creating winning images that implant in people's minds electoral triumphs as the ultimate barometer of success for a party.

The shock and awe of defeat for rivals, painted as enemies, driven by a shrill campaign of hard polarisation and 'national glory', dims the appeal of the staid 'jobs, economy, constitution, health, education' plank which the opposition is seeking to run on. It is also an effective antidote to the sole emotive card of 'caste' that the rivals have.

No wonder, even in its defeat in Karnataka, BJP chose to contrive allegations that slogans hailing Pakistan were raised in the victory celebrations of the Congress candidate belonging to the minority community. And the day after, the media is full of reports of Akhilesh Yadav receiving CBI summons, Arvind Kejriwal avoiding ED calls. The campaign is relentless and focused, spraying black paint at the opposition.

The message from the latest RS polls is that BJP is focused on victory, big or small, and would go to any length for it. This hunger puts it above most parties, even if some regional players like TMC and DMK show similar political appetite. However, its RS defeat in Karnataka, after its spectacular loss to Congress in the May 2023 assembly elections, has reinforced the perception that BJP continues to struggle in the South, even as it is rampaging in the North.

For the opposition, the task is cut out. How does it appear to be a strong claimant to power when it is forever projected as losing and fumbling? The bigger question is whether the delayed seat-sharing/alliance-making has given a first mover advantage to BJP, which has its agenda and campaign already off the ground. This is why the opposition's claims of success after recent announcements of seat-sharing arrangements in UP and Delhi did not enthuse many outside the beleaguered cadre of the parties involved.