Why hadn't his No. 51 squadron of MiG-21 been upgraded to Tejas? Would he stand a chance if he was flying Tejas against PAF F-16A/JF-17? Or would he still end up becoming synonym to cha? So far IAF has only one Tejas squadron, wasn't Tejas supposed to replace all MiG-21?

This Sep his No. 51 squadron was disbanded. Why didn't IAF preserve this distinguished squadron that purportedly shot down PAF F-16 with MiG-21 by upgrading it to Tejas Mk2 even though it only exist in PPT and model? Didn’t they get themselves "Falcon Slayer", "AMRAAM dodger" shoulder patch.

Purportedly there's a leaked report that stated the pilots of No. 51 squadron refused to take off when ordered to take on PAF in Feb 27 that year. One of them said that flying MiG-21 against PAF F-16A/JF-17 is a suicidal mission. Eventually they were given ultimatum to take off. Abhinandan was one of the two that flew in the right direction, the rest loiter around the Srinagar airbase. If true, it's understandable why IAF want to disband this squadron rather than preserving it.