But his most glorious moment as an aviator came when he rescued two key Indonesian independence leaders, Sukarno and Sutan Sjahrir, who later became the first president and the first prime minister of Indonesia respectively. The duo was airlifted by Biju Patnaik from a remote hideout in Indonesia, where they were hiding to escape capture from their then Dutch colonial masters, and were brought safely to India.9 For this daring act which played a pivotal role in the independence of Indonesia, Patnaik was honoured by Sukarno with the title of ‘Bhoomiputra (Son of the Soil)’—Indonesia’s highest
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