IAF sacks flying officer
Anjali Gupta

Anjali Gupta dismissed, to retain rank, benefits

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 7, 2006

On Friday last week, Indian Air Force (IAF) flying officer Anjali Gupta, who had been found guilty on five of seven serious charges, was dismissed from service. This was the first time ever that a woman officer in the IAF had faced court martial proceedings for "indiscipline." On February 3, Chief of Air Staff SP Tyagi issued an executive order dismissing her from service.

Anjali Gupta was found guilty of charges that included indiscipline, insubordination and financial irregularity. In his order, the Chief of Air Staff had reduced the recommended sentence of cashiering to mere dismissal. Cashiering is a more severe punishment than 'dismissal' as a cashiered officer is denied the privileges of rank and post-service benefits.

Reacting to the dismissal, Gupta said the following day, "Neither am I shocked nor am I surprised. After all, it (IAF) is a men's club." She said that she would file a "post confirmation petition" with the government. She further said that she would launch a website within two months for young women officers in the defence that would lend them a helping hand and offer advice with respect to the issues she had fought for. She added, "I am not broken (by the decision)".

Earlier, in response to the charges, Gupta had filed counter charges of sexual harassment against four superior officers. The sexual harassment charges had been referred to a Court of Inquiry, who had concluded that Anjali Gupta had failed to prove her complaint of sexual harassment. The inquiry report said that, "No action needs to be taken against Sqn Ldr R S Choudhary, Wg Cdr V C Cyriac and Cmde A Chopra against whom Anjali Gupta has made charges of sexual harassment."

While this particular verdict may have gone in favor of the IAF, its image has not emerged unscathed. One notable feature of the controversy was how Gupta had to approach several authorities with her complaint (the Delhi High Court, who dismissed her plea on jurisdictional grounds, the local police, who asked her to sort the matter out with her seniors, the Karnata High Court and the Karnataka State Commission for Women, and in a letter to her Chief of Staff, alleging that her seniors had framed cases of embezzlement against her). Another was how she was taken into custody 'for her own protection.' Furthermore, the defamation of character that occurred with the IAF going public is being seen as harsh punishment for what is seen by the general public as petty charges (such as snatching and throwing a breakfast parcel meant for a senior officer).

Gupta's family members have claimed that the IAF had adopted a casual approach to her allegations and that she was shunted from department to department every time she complained against her seniors.

Along with questions of women's safety in the workplace, and especially the defence, which is seen by many as being male-dominated, the controversy has thrown up difficult questions for the IAF, regardless of whether Gupta's case was justly handled or not.

A delegation of the AIDWA pointed out that the case was of importance because it sets a precedent as to how women personnel in the Air Force are to be dealt with. Furthermore, her 'close arrest', a jury composition that included a member she had made accusations against, and similar violations of justice happened because of a lack of guidelines regarding the conditions of women's employment in the IAF. The delegations letter went on to say that "It is incomprehensible why this young woman should be kept in solitary confinement on such minor charges. The plea taken by the authorities that it is because she may commit suicide is laughable… Every conversation she has on the telephone is being monitored. Every action of the Air Force in this case is further causing trauma to this young woman."

If the IAF wants to stop sending negative messages to aspiring young women who wish to join, it needs to formulate specific guidelines for countering any violation of its officers' rights. Not because Anjali Gupta was right or wrong, but because the IAF owes its officers a safe work environment.