The Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal P K Barbora has hit out at the political class saying politics over Defence purchases impinged "very badly" on the country's military requirements. He said, the internal politics over the years is such that whatever defence requirements are cleared by the government, they are opposed by the opposition parties and the same happens when roles change and opposition sits in government. Air Marshal Barbora also painted a none too optimistic picture about the country's Defence exports saying, as far as defence goes, the country does not even match up with Pakistan. He was addressing a seminar organised by CII on energising aviation sector in India. <br/> <br/>On the present status of the country's capabilities in the aerospace sector, Air Marshal said India is very happy producing small parts of aircraft and exporting them to Airbus in Europe but China has already started building whole aircraft for the same company. He also said private industry's participation be increased in the defence sector and India should be "bold enough" to allow more FDI in the area. He said bringing in private players is very important for the aviation sector as India was not even contributing one per cent to the world market in the aerospace industry.<br/> <br/>On his earlier remarks over induction of women fighter pilots into the IAF, Air Marshal Barbora said these comments were his "personal opinion" and issued a clarification short of an apology.<br/>He fuelled a controversy on Tuesday with his remarks on the economic viability of hiring women as fighter pilots<br/>citing situations where they will be off duties for some time once they had children.<br/>