She was asked if she could do it. She said, 'Why not?' — and then flew faster than the speed of sound. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking at an interactive session with girl students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on September 25, 2026, recounted the moment she accepted the challenge of a supersonic flight in a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet during her tenure as Defence Minister — a tenure that ran from September 2017 to May 2019.

Briefed on Jodhpur's tarmac before breaking the sound barrier

Before the flight took off from Jodhpur, officers of the Indian Air Force put Sitharaman through what she described as 'excellent training' on the range of situations she might encounter mid-air. The preparation was no formality — supersonic flight in a frontline combat aircraft demands familiarity with disorienting g-forces, emergency procedures, and rapid-fire cockpit decisions.

Then the aircraft broke the sound barrier. 'Flying beyond the speed of sound was a completely different experience,' she told the students, describing it as a revelation — not just an aviation milestone, but a window into a mental universe she had never occupied before.

What a cockpit taught a Cabinet minister about combat pilots

The flight, Sitharaman said, fundamentally reframed her understanding of what IAF pilots endure in operational conditions. She came away struck by 'the level of alertness pilots must maintain in combat situations and their ability to take immediate decisions and act swiftly under any circumstances.'

That is not a small thing to witness from the inside of a fighter jet. The Sukhoi-30MKI — the twin-engine, supermaneuverable backbone of India's air combat fleet — is capable of sustained supersonic cruise and is flown through scenarios that stress human physiology and cognition simultaneously. A minister who has sat in that cockpit carries a different weight when signing off on defence budgets or procurement decisions.

A story told to girls in Chennai — and why the setting matters

Sitharaman chose this story not for a defence briefing or a Parliament session, but for a room full of girl students in Tamil Nadu. The implicit message was pointed: the word 'can't' is a question, not an answer. Senior ministers have periodically undertaken orientation flights in IAF aircraft to gain firsthand exposure to operational realities, but few have recounted the experience in youth outreach settings with this kind of directness.

The choice of audience sharpens the story's edge. A Finance Minister, in a school hall, describing supersonic speeds and split-second combat decisions — it lands differently there than it would in a committee room.

For India's girl students who heard it live, the moral was already in the air before she finished the sentence: when the system asks if you can, the only right answer is, 'Why not?'