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Lt Gen Bipin Rawat

Air Marshal B S Dhanoa

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17

The government tonight appointed Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the next Chief of Army Staff, superseding two seniormost commanders — Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Southern Army Commander Lt Gen PM Hariz.The last time an Army commander was superseded was in 1983 when General AS Vaidya was appointed Army Chief. In protest, his senior Lt Gen SK Sinha had quit. The government tonight also appointed Air Marshal BS Dhanoa, the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force, as the next Chief. Air Marshal Dhanoa is a fighter pilot who commanded a fighter squadron during the Kargil conflict and himself flew night-strike missions in the mountainous terrain.He has served as Senior Air Staff Officer of two operational Commands and commanded the South Western Air Command. Son of a former Punjab Chief Secretary, SS Dhanoa, he is the third officer from the Sikh community to be elevated to the highest rank, the other two being Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh and Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh (1981 to 1984).Lt Gen Rawat and Air Marshal Dhanoa will take over in the afternoon of December 31.continued on page 7

Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, presently the Vice Chief of the Army, is from the 5/11 Gorkha Rifles and got the ‘sword of honour’ when he passed out from the Indian Military Academy in 1978. Hailing from Uttarakhand, he has vast experience in high-altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations.He commanded an Infantry battalion at Kibithoo along the Line of Actual Control in the eastern-most corner of Arunachal Pradesh and also the Dimapur-based 3 Corps. Prior to taking over as the Vice Chief, Lt Gen Rawat was the Southern Army Commander. Lt Gen Rawat survived a helicopter crash in February last year.Defence ministry sources said Lt Gen Bakshi and Lt Gen Hariz had lesser experience of operational areas, hence Lt Gen Rawat was appointed. Such instances have happened earlier in the Navy and IAF. In the Navy, when Admiral Robin Dhowan was appointed as Chief in April 2014, his senior Vice Admiral Sekhar Sinha quit. In November 1990, just before demitting office, the VP Singh government superseded Vice-Admiral Sukmal (Tony) Jain and named his junior Laxminarayan Ramdas as the Navy Chief.In the IAF, in 1973, Air Marshal MM Engineer and Air Marshal Shivdev Singh were passed over when OP Mehra was appointed IAF Chief. In 1988, Air Marshal MM Singh was overlooked and SK Mehra was appointed Chief. Singh quit. Besides, there have been other cases of manipulation. In 1987, Vice Admiral Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni, who was otherwise retiring, was given a brief extension and elevated as Chief of the Navy. Earlier, in 1972, Lt Gen PS Bhagat, who was in line to succeed General (later Field Marshal) Sam Manekshaw, was side-stepped by giving his junior General GG Bewoor a year’s extension, during which time Bhagat retired. Bewoor, thus, succeeded Manekshaw.

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Mohali link of new Air Chief

Chandigarh, December 17

The next Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, has his roots in Mohali. He was born in Gharuan village, adjoining Chandigarh’s satellite township, on September 7, 1957.Air Marshal Dhanoa’s father, Sarayan Singh, was the Punjab Chief Secretary during the 1980s and later served as adviser to the state Governor, while his sister is residing in Chandigarh. His grandfather, Capt Sant Singh, had served with the erstwhile British Indian Army. According to locals, the Air Marshal’s family had a house and some land in the village, but had disposed it of. He had last visited the village in September 2014 to attend a “bhog” ceremony.Gharuan is a village of about 10,000 inhabitants and while residents are by and large unaware about Air Marshal Dhanoa, a few still remember the legacy of Capt Sant Singh. Some of Air Marshal Dhanoa’s relatives still reside there. Air Marshal Dhanoa is an alumnus of the Rashtriya Indian Military College and the National Defence Academy. — Vijay Mohan

Day of big appointments: Army, intel chiefs named

Oppn parties question why senior army contenders ignored

NEW DELHI: Lt Gen Bipin Rawat was named India’s next army chief on Saturday as the government abandoned a three-decadesold tradition of elevating seniormost officers as military chiefs.

It, however, stuck to the practice in elevating vice chief air marshal BS Dhanoa — a Kargil war veteran who hails from Punjab’s Mohali — as the next head of the Indian Air Force.

The two new chiefs — both 1978 batch officers — will take charge on December 31.

Political parties usually avoid comment on military appointments but the choice of Rawat was immediately criticised by the opposition Congress and CPI(M). Congress spokesman Man is hTew ari questioned why the government ignored others for Rawat, who is now the the force’s vice chief. A vice chief is not necessarily the second seniormost officer. In early 1980s, Lt Gen SK Sinha was overlooked in the appointment of Gen AS Vaidya as the army chief.

In promoting Rawat, the claims of Eastern Army commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, the senior-most general on the day present army chief Dalbir Singh retires, and Southern Army commander Lt Gen PM Hariz, were ignored.

There were early indications that the government might not follow established norms.

The names of new chiefs are conventionally announced 2-3 months before an incumbent retires. But this time the next appointments have come barely a fortnight before the incumbents retire.

Dhanoa, who was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal after Kargil, will be the third Sikh to head the IAF after distinguished military leaders Arjan Singh and Dilbag Singh.Rawat will be the second consecutive chief from the Gorkha Rifles. He will succeed Gen Dalbir Singh who was commissioned into 4/5 Gorkha Rifles. Rawat, a Kashmir and Northeast veteran, survived a chopper accident when he was commander the Dimapurbased Headquarters 3 Corps. He headed the Indian brigade during the UN peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2008.