The troubled Tejas started out as an ambitions program by India that started around 1983 to push it into the club of 4th gen fighter makers. If successful, India would have entered the 4th gen fighter era earlier of China. But alas that never happened.
Decades later, Modi's BJP government took the stuttering Tejas program into it's Supapowar project. India is already be a Supapowar, so it should have been exporting high value defence products like fighter jets. That is why despite the abysmal production and adoption rates by the Indian Airforce, India is so anxious to export the Tejas. Even when they are still waiting for a trickle of engines from the GE to complete Tejas airframes for their own squadrons. They have gone to great lengths to showcase their Tejas in airshows, lobby other nations to buy the jets, and even lied about obtaining orders. It's all to feed their Supapowar project.
The Jai Hinds treat the world aviation market like gullible fools. They boast that their Tejas outperforms the JF-17, J-10, and even the J-20. But they also ignore that all successful fighter exports must have successful domestic service. The Gripen, FA-50, and JF-17 all had successful production runs and service for their respective air forces years before they were exported. The Tejas is barely filling up Indian squadrons and the Indians are already boasting about export orders.
At Dubai, the Indians waved off a bad oil leak as "hater conspiracy". Then their pilot attempted a dangerous stunt at very low altitudes for the cameras. He made a slight mistake, but at that altitude, there was no margin for error, and lost his life as a result. Then the Indian media were busy blaming other nations and boasting that the Tejas has less crashes than indigenous Pakistani and Chinese jets. This is all a symptom of that Supapowar mindset.
