The picture of Bhagwan Hanuman on HAL super fighter jet model Maruth HLFT-42 which was removed on the second day of the Aero India Show 2023 in Bengaluru following a manufactured controversy by Hinduphobes, was back on the last day of the show on Friday.

The picture of Bhagwan Hanuman, son of Vayu dev (wind deity), was embossed on the tail of the HLFT-42 aircraft model. The picture also had the tagline ‘the storm is coming’. When asked about the intention behind the sticker, HAL CMD C.M. Ananthkrishnan just stated, “we had put the sticker just to depict the power of the aircraft, but after an internal discussion, we decided not to have it so we removed it.”

It was a simple thing and was based on the previous trainer aircraft ‘Marut’ but we saw some interpretations. The project is still in the initial stage and we only wanted to focus on the project, he said. in Hindu Dharma, Maruts are storm deities who usually accompany Indra dev.

The manufactured controversy arose after Union Minister for Mine, Coal, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi had tweeted about the Bhagwan Hanuman picture and expressed his happiness over it. Quoting a line from the Hanuman Chalisa written in praise of Sri Hanuman by Goswami Tulsidas, Pralhad Joshi shared the pictures of Maruth HLFT 42, a super jet model. “The picture of Bajrangbali (Bhagwan Hanuman) is specially highlighted on the jet,” he said.

The pictures of the model of Maruth super jet went viral on social media. As usual, left-liberals took objection to any expression of Bharatiya traditions and culture. They claimed the photo of the Hindu deity, who is a symbol of strength & speed, went against ‘secularism’. For these malcontent, the scenes from the Ramayana embossed on our Constitution and the Dharmic battle cries of many Army regiments must also be a source of great heartburn. The very Dharmachakra or ‘wheel of duty’ in our national flag is a gift from Dharma. Forget Bharat, even a Muslim nation like Indonesia has kept the Garuda Pancasila as its national symbol – Garuda is the legendary bird mount of Bhagwan Vishnu!

Laughingly, news agency IANS has termed these perennial haters as ‘progressive thinkers’ and termed their objections thus –

Some progressive thinkers objected that the armed forces should not have any religious representations which would affect the morale of the soldiers.

Such moronic utterances can be found littered all over Indian English language mainstream media, such is the lack of integrity and tendency to take readers for fools that is deeply embedded in this entire class due to their training and conditioning in Western intellectual frameworks. Sri Hanuman, or Bajrang Bali as he is lovingly called by his bhakts, is a source of inspiration for anyone undertaking any physical activity such as wrestlers. The very chant of ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ generates a wave energy in every Bharatiya. Seeing his photo on the plane will raise the moral of soldiers, not bring it down!

However, this fake controversy was enough to bully some of the top honchos at HAL, and the picture of Sri Hanuman was removed. But seeing the public response to their act of cowardice, HAL management was forced to correct their mistake and the picture is now back on HLFT-42, HLFT standing for Hindustan Lead in Fighter Trainer which is regarded as the ‘Next Generation Supersonic Trainer’. HAL is displaying the model for the first time at the Aero India Show 2023.

The jet is expected to play a critical role in modern combat aircraft training with state-of-the-art avionics like Active Electronically Scanned Array, Electronic Warfare Suite, Infrared Search and Track with Fly by Wire Control system.

(With IANS inputs)