Painting - A Tribute to a Living Legend Wg Cdr JM (Jaggi) Nath MVC & Bar

This painting is an attempt by me to recreate a mission flown by Wing Commander Jaggi Nath during the 1962 Chinese aggression. His task was to detect areas of Chinese intrusion. These missions were flown by him all alone without any protection in absolute secrecy to gather intelligence over Tibet and Aksai Chin areas.

For his courage and contribution to the war effort, he was awarded the only Mahavir Chakra earned by an air warrior during the conflict.

The missions flown by Winco Nath in Indo-Pak war of 1965 were once again legendary. On one occasion, Wg Cdr Nath while on a single aircraft photo recce daytime mission over Pakistan was attacked by four Pakistani fighters. He evaded them successfully by maneuvering his aircraft in a last ditch attempt and could complete his mission to bring back valuable information towards our war effort.

For his contribution to the Nation’s defence, Wg Cdr JM Nath MVC was awarded a bar to the Mahavir Chakra on 01 Sep 1965, thus making him the first ever person to be awarded so.

This painting is somewhat my own interpretation of how a Canberra PR aircraft would have looked like while he flew at low level over the beautiful Pangong Tso.