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IAF to launch media blitz to net recruits

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Concerned over the falling standards of officer-recruits, the Indian Air Force is proposing to launch a major media campaign to attract the best of talent into its fold.

Raw patriotism, a super-human image and the thrill of continuous challenge would be the thrust of this campaign.

This would be the second attempt by the Indian defence forces to garner after the 'Do you have it in you' series by the Army. Started a couple of years back, the Rs 2 crore campaign has been called off for the time being.

Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis said on Tuesday that IAF is planning to seek "professional help, especially to utilise the strong influence of the electronic media" to publicise the "unknown facets" of service life.

He said the advertisements would try to project the fact that an officer's life is one of "continuous challenge" and that "not every ordinary person can do that". The proposal, which is at a conceptual stage, is looking at hiring professional advertisement agencies to design highly attractive ads to be run on various TV channels. The air chief said the prime medium to which the IAF is looking up is the electronic media "which has a strong influence" on the youth.

He admitted that the best of the youth are shying away from the uniformed services as "some facilities of urban life" are denied on several occasions and privileges and perks are not at par with the best of private industry.

Raw patriotism, that was highly visible in the initial periods of independent India, too is missing, he admitted, saying that would be a major thrust of the campaign.

He said the IAF, for the time being, is not planning to increase the quota of women officers in its fold. He said in "all possible areas", they are adequately represented.

Addressing a gathering of National Cadets Corps members from all over the nation on Tuesday as part of annual NCC week celebrations, he admitted that there has been an erosion of institutions and that there is a need to correct some of the mistakes of past.

He said 50 years after independence, "through travails of war, political hiccups, erosion of many institutions, the enthusiasm that we had at dawn of independence has, to put it very lightly, undergone some change".

"If we are to make sure not to make the mistakes of past it is incumbent on us to reflect upon some of the areas where we have gone haywire," he said. Independence should not mean mere political freedom, but it should also mean technological and social freedom. "I do believe we have concentrated too much of focus on science and technology and not social issues. They are equally important," he said.

He said the conflict of religions is more pronounced now than ever. "Re-emergence of caste differences call upon us to reflect why has that it happened". He said ethos taught through institutions such as NCC and schools are left behind once "you leave educational institutions". He called upon the students to carry through their live these ethos.

He said illiteracy and ignorance are the major reasons for the imbalances in society, admitting that though in the last 50 years several programmes were launched for educating people they are yet to achieve full success.

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