Missing An-32 plane and the BJP’s omnious silence

As India prepares to celebrate Independence Day on August 15th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the customary remarks about military sacrifice and national duty. Yet the government has remained conspicuously quiet about a more pressing military matter: the missing AN-32 plane that disappeared three weeks ago.

On July 22nd, an IAF transport aircraft carrying 29 people—including six crew members, eight defence civilians, two army soldiers, a naval officer, a coastguard personnel, and eleven air force staff—vanished over the Bay of Bengal while en route from Chennai to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The AN-32 lost contact with ground control after flying 280 kilometres east of Tambaram Air Force Station, having climbed to 23,000 feet before disappearing from radar at 9:12 a.m.

The government mobilised an immediate response. The IAF, Indian Navy, and Coast Guard initiated search and rescue operations by late afternoon. Submarines scanned underwater zones across the suspected crash area. The National Disaster Relief Force joined the effort. Satellite imagery from ISRO was deployed. By all appearances, a comprehensive operation unfolded—for three days. Since late July, the search has been gradually scaled back, and media coverage has largely ceased.

This pattern warrants scrutiny. The AN-32, an upgraded Soviet-era transport aircraft, is hardly a recent acquisition. India has experience with these aircraft: a previous AN-32 vanished over the Indian Ocean on March 25th, 1986, with seven people aboard—a loss that was covered up and largely forgotten. Another crashed in Kerala in 1990, killing all aboard. A third crashed near Delhi International Airport in 1999, claiming 21 lives. Most recently, one crashed in Arunachal Pradesh in 2009, killing 13. The Defence Ministry subsequently signed a $400m contract with Ukraine to upgrade the entire fleet, with the aim of extending the aircraft’s operational life by another 15 years.

Aircraft experts attribute such incidents to ageing components common in Soviet-made planes. IAF officials counter that the missing aircraft had recently been upgraded and was fully functional. Either way, the pattern suggests systemic vulnerabilities in India’s military transport fleet.

The broader context amplifies the silence. Under Modi’s government, scrutiny of military affairs has become politically fraught. Critics of armed forces operations risk being branded anti-national. Media organisations, particularly those aligned with the government, have moderated their investigative coverage. When a far-right political movement that depends substantially on nationalist fervour suddenly mutes discussion of a military aircraft disappearance, legitimate questions arise about what remains to be explained.

Three weeks with no public accounting for 29 missing personnel, no clarity on technical causes, and no apparent urgency from a government that routinely emphasises military pride and technological prowess. The missing AN-32 plane deserves more than silence.