AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 118 of 167 During a morning – maybe during the first half of 1970 - no sooner had I entered the office, an orderly was waiting for me, to say that I was to meet Col Venkateswaran immediately. I went to his office and as soon as he sighted me, he said that in the previous day’s meeting of the RM, there was a point, which concerned the Electronics establishments within the DRDO. Hence, he ordered that I immediately proceed to the office of the SA and obtain a copy of the said minutes so that we could go through the same and take suitable action. We are most effective as a team when we complement each other without embarrassment and disagree without fear. ~ Unknown In a short while, I reached the place, identified myself and went over to the office of the SA. I met Shri Krishnamurthy, his Personal Assistant (PA), and explained to him the purpose of my visit, and requested that he give me a copy of the said minutes. The PA told me, that under no circumstances could I get a copy of the minutes, which were classified and copy-numbered. Neither, could I make any notes of the minutes. All that was permitted was, that I could read the minutes, take note of the action required and initiate the same accordingly. Only on agreeing to these conditions, would he permit me to see the minutes. I called up the AD and explained to him as to what had transpired at the office of the PA. He instructed me to read the minutes, understand the same and return and explain the same to him and the D of L, so that appropriate action could be initiated. I explained the position to the PA and requested him to allow me to peruse the minutes a little leisurely. He allowed me ample time to read through the minutes a couple of times, so that I did not forget the important items therein. He had already penciled the relevant portion – pertaining to the DRDO. And in the present instance it was only concerning the D of L and no others. And when I read through the minutes, I was dazed for a moment. Though whatever I am now mentioning is from memory – it still appears as though it is a camera shot in my brain. Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Air Chief Marshal PC Lal, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) had requested for the release of precious foreign Exchange (FE), so as to procure a few special types of Early Warning (EW) radars required by the Air Force. The amount at that time was possibly a couple of crores. FE was scarce though the exchange rate was only about seven rupees to the