The story of journalists, a martyr and grieving parents

What went wrong?

For the accomplished pilots of 254 Army Aviation Squadron, flying over the waters of the Ranjit Sagar Dam is part of their basic training. But on Aug 3, 2021, their helicopter crashed for some strange reason, killing both the pilots. The body of Lt Col AS Batth was found a few days after the crash on Aug 15 while Capt Jayant’s body was found after 75 days on October 17.

Immediately after the crash, the Indian Army along with the Indian Navy began a massive search operation to locate the bodies of the two pilots. According to Harish Joshi, it was the Navy that was more determined than the Army in its efforts. After the first body was located, and with each passing day, Joshi was hoping and praying that the rescue teams could locate the body of his son. There were rumours that the search would be called off.

Now this is where I want to talk about the role of the media. Had it not been for some upright journalists from some leading newspapers and channels like The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Tribune, The Wire, among others, including tweets and hash tags by several others, the rescue operation would have been called off by the Army much before Captain Jayant’s body was recovered.

According to Joshi, it was the Indian Navy that gave him constant hope that they would ensure that his son’s body would be recovered at any cost. As for a few senior Army officers, they were simply pussyfooting, trying their best to call off the rescue operations citing rising costs.

Being an auto journalist, I too chipped in with my sincere efforts. I met some defence correspondents and their Editors and urged them to keep writing on the rescue operations so that the search was not called off. The Wire Editor M K Venu was kind enough to hear me out and was very helpful. The Wire defence writer Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar wrote a brilliant report that made sure the search operations continued.

Firebrand journalist Barkha Dutt from Mojonews did her bit by writing and tweeting continuously about the incident. She even interviewed Harish Joshi and kept the news alive. Harish’s old friend from Maruti Udyog days, Arun Arora sent out several critical tweets too. Captain Jayant Joshi’s body was retrieved from the lake 76 days after the crash.

Auto journalists who had interacted with Joshi when he was working with Maruti Suzuki, tweeted about the crash and Harish Joshi’s predicament. Many of them went out of their way to keep the pressure "on". Hormazd Sorabjee, Pankaj Doval, Sumant Banerji, Girish Karkera, Kranti Sambhav, Siddharth Patankar, Gagan Sethi, to name a few, were very proactive, tweeting extensively on the issue. 

I know I did my bit. I genuinely grieved and I prayed for a closure. I was happy, sad and emotional when Jayant’s body was finally found. The postmortem report that followed emotionally destroyed Captain Jayant’s parents.

When his body was bought for cremation to Delhi I was there to pay my last respects. A brave officer of the Indian Army had died in the line of duty. An old timer like me, Deepak Joshi who was a colleague of mine when I was in The Hindustan Times New Delhi, was also present at the cremation. 

As for the company Joshi worked in, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, except for a couple of people working there, not a single person from the management, senior or junior, was there to console the grieving father. This was not the time for apathy, but for love and forgiveness and sharing of grief. 

The Postmortem Report, another shocker

After Captain Jayant’s  body was recovered, a postmortem was conducted by the Army. A 20-page report of the Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) based in Bengaluru noted that multiple injuries were sustained by Captain Jayant and even though these were grievous in nature, he could have survived. The injuries adversely affected Jayant’s survivability in water for a self rescue, but had he been equipped with a life jacket and other equipment, maybe he could have been alive today. Harish Joshi is yet to come to terms with the fact that his son had drowned after the crash because of lack of a simple life jacket.

Harish Joshi wrote to the President of India seeking a detailed explanation. The letter was forwarded to Secretary, Ministry of Defence asking him to find out what really happened. Joshi received no reply from the Defence Secretary.

He also wrote to the then Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Karamvir Singh, thanking the Navy, especially the recovery team, for locating Jayant’s body. Joshi maintained that proper training should have been given to those Army pilots who fly over water. But these young pilots got no underwater crash survival training and also missing during such flights was a life jacket.

Harish said that the autopsy report of his son’s body confirmed that Jayant was alive after the crash but he drowned because he did not have a life jacket. The report said he died of drowning. Jayant was a great swimmer, and had there been a life jacket, it would have kept him afloat. The moment the helicopter had crashed, dam authorities and locals were the first to reach the spot with their boats.  Rescue boats and choppers too joined in. Had Jayant been seen floating on water, he could have been easily rescued.  Jayant had suffered a thigh bone fracture and a collar bone fracture in the crash which made it impossible for him to swim up to the surface. But a life jacket could have pushed him up to the surface. .

The Army continues to be in a denial mode. Even the Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt mentioned in Parliament that flying on water is a miniscule part of training for these army pilots. Miniscule or otherwise, what stopped the Army from providing life jackets for that miniscule part? Are the lives of our defence personnel not precious? Several lapses are apparent. But no senior officer had the courage to apologise or admit that a mistake had been done. Politicians, who generally shed crocodile tears over our defence sacrifices, pushed the Jayant episode under the carpet literally. When Jayant’s body was brought to Delhi for cremation, there was no one from the Delhi government to pay his or her last respects. A martyr was coming home. He deserved a dignified send off.

Harish Joshi and his officer wife spend sleepless nights even today thinking about their son who died while on duty. He could have lived, had the Indian Army been a little more careful and prepared. No heads have rolled for the lapses. No heads will roll either. Harish Joshi sometimes feels guilty to have pushed his son into joining the Army. Captain Jayant was a brilliant officer, he died too early.

Today, Harish Joshi’s friends advice him to “move on” and “bury” his grief. What has been done cannot be undone, they say. It’s easy for you and me to say that.  But try explaining that to a distraught and shattered father, it’s virtually impossible. He was meant to live, not die. To add insult to injury, neither Captain Jayant nor Lt Col AS Batth got any special mention or award on Aug 15, 2022 Independence Day. Two brave officers of the Indian Army did not die from a shot from the enemy, but from a shot from within. Hang down your heads in shame. We should have brought out our boys alive!