Promotion row over, IAF gears up for reshuffle

Besides this, Air Officer (Personnel), Air Marshal A.K. Nagalia, currently also officiating as the Deputy Chief of Staff (following the appointment of Air Marshal J.S. Gujral to the top post at Central Air Command), is expected to retain one post while freeing up the other. Nagalia, incidentally, wore both hats on his just-concluded visit to the United States with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, where both personnel as well as procurement issues were raised.

A promotion board for the Air Vice Marshal to Air Marshal ranks is soon to be approved by the Cabinet Committee on Appointments at South Block. It will also take care of vacancies in other three-star staff positions.

Promotions in the IAF took centrestage last year when the then Air Vice Marshal Harish Masand sued his force for denying him a promotion to the next rank by the 2003 special promotion board. HE was promoted in March this year and appointed Special Advisor to the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in Bangalore.

Air Marshal Malik’s short stint as Vice Chief—he assumed charge in September, 2004, after commanding the Southern Air Command—has been eventful. With the IAF’s top leadership in transition towards the end of last year—what with Air Chief Marshal (retd) S Krishnaswamy passing on the baton to current chief S.P. Tyagi—the entire IAF tsunami relief operation sat squarely on his shoulders. Mostly a ‘behind the scenes’ officer, Malik is credited with deploying the force’s largest-ever peacetime operation in the Indian Ocean region.