Indian Tejas fighter's reputation took a substantial hit after the crash at Dubai Airshow 2025. And now additional questions arise about its accident rate even currently, as it will supposedly be excluded from participation in India's Republic Day parade on January 26, 2026.
The published list of aviation equipment to fly during celebrations will include Su-30MKI, Dassault Rafale, Boeing P-8I Neptune, C-295, and MiG-29 aircraft. Helicopters will include AH-64 Apache and HAL Prachand LCH attack helicopters, plus HAL Dhruv ALH and Mi-17 transport helicopters.
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Indeed, Tejas is absent from all this promoted as the pride of Indian aviation industry. So rumors immediately spread about doubts regarding the aircraft's reliability and safety.
India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh's response didn't provide clarity, stating platforms with best capabilities were selected. He added there's no specific reason regarding exclusion of certain samples.
So the impression emerges that India doesn't consider its own development actively promoted everywhere as sufficient. Or they're simply trying not to say they're worried about reliability and safety.
Overall, it makes sense that an aircraft about which doubts exist would be excluded from celebrations to avoid potential casualties. Moreover, the problem may not be critical, but in such cases it's often better to play safe, especially when it concerns such an important event as a parade.
Currently there's no news about Tejas flights being suspended overall, as often done with critical problems like with HAL Dhruv. So most likely this concerns only celebrations, and critical operational threats may not exist. But it's impossible to say for certain whether something is hidden behind the scenes.
Regarding whether this will hurt export prospects the crash of the Indian fighter itself caused the most damage, though parade absence may additionally make people think. However, there's still no information about potential buyer interest, unlike with Pakistani JF-17s.
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