 "Rajnath Singh flies in LCA Tejas")
On Thursday, Rajnath Singh became the first Indian defence minister to take a flight on the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft in Bengaluru. In flying in the Indian fighter, he was signalling confidence in the indigenous fighter programme. His predecessor, Nirmala Sitharaman, chose to fly in a Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKI last year.
Asked after landing why he chose the Tejas fighter, Singh responded: “Because it is indigenously developed.”
Interestingly, Singh is not the first defence minister to venture up on the Indian-designed fighter. That honour went to Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen over a year ago, when he took a ride on a
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