New Delhi: Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, the vice chief of the Indian Army, will be the next Army chief, succeeding General Dalbir Singh Suhag, the government announced on Saturday.
The announcement also brought to an end the guessing game borne out of government’s delay in announcing the name for the Army’s top job. It has been a convention that the new Army chief is announced 60 days before the incumbent retires.
He has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter insurgency operations. He commanded an Infantry battalion along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern sector, a Rashtriya Rifles sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley.
He has tenanted instructional appointments at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and Army War College, Mhow.
Lt Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary’s Branch at Army HQ.
He has also been Major General General Staff at HQ Eastern Command. The officer commanded a Multinational Brigade in a Chapter VII mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC).
An alumni of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, the Higher Command and National Defence College Courses, Lt Gen Rawat, during the span of over 35 years’ service in uniform, has been awarded for gallantry and distinguished service.
According to the followed norms, the incoming chief’s name is announced two to three months before the incumbent retires and incoming chief is moved from the command to army headquarters in New Delhi. This allows the chief-in-waiting the time to familiarise himself with the office of the Army chief and daily chorus attached to it. However, with just 13 days to go before Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag retires, Lt Gen Rawat is left with much less time to get acquainted functional procedures within Army Chief’s office at the South Block.
In another high-profile appointment, Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, a Kargil war veteran, was tapped in as the next Air Force chief. He will succeed incumbent Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha who relinquishes the office on December 31.
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