Indian Army set to get its first chief born after ’62 war
Top generals from among whom the govt will choose Pande’s successor were all born after the 1962 war that was fought over disputed territories in the Himalayas.
The next chief of the Indian Army, expected to be named by the new government around mid-June, will be the first four-star general born after the 1962 India-China war. The development is significant for the world’s second largest army as it is likely to usher in a psychological generational shift that sheds the ghost of a year that was traumatic, some people aware of the matter said on Tuesday, even while others maintained that it was merely symbolic, and that the army had already put the 1962 debacle behind it.
The current army chief, General Manoj Pande, was born on May 6, 1962, and was supposed to hang up his boots on May 31 before the government handed him a rare one-month extension, with the unexpected development deepening the suspense over who will be India’s next army chief. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, granted the extension under the relevant army rules on May 26.
A service chief can serve for a maximum term of three years or till the age of 62, whichever comes first. Pande will now retire on June 30 after holding the reins of the army for two years and two months. He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to hold the top position.
The top generals from among whom the government will choose Pande’s successor were all born after the 1962 war that was fought over disputed territories in the Himalayas from October 20 to November 20. They were born in 1964 or later.
Read Here: In a rare move, army chief gets 1-month extension
Successive Indian governments still haven’t declassified the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report on the reasons behind India’s defeat in the 1962 war. To be sure, Australian journalist Neville Maxwell made portions of the report public in March 2014 by uploading it on the internet, triggering a fresh debate on the debacle and the events that led to it. The report practically held the entire civilian and military leadership responsible for driving the country into a war for which it wasn’t prepared .
The date till which Pande has been granted extension is significant because it is the day the two senior-most generals believed to be in the running for the top post also retire. Army vice chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi is currently the senior-most officer after Pande followed by Southern Army commander Lieutenant General AK Singh.
Both generals were born in 1964 and are due to retire on June 30 on turning 60 (the age till which three-star generals serve). To be sure, a top officer can be appointed service chief even if he is retiring on the same day as the outgoing chief.
Dwivedi and Singh are followed in seniority by Northern Army commander Lieutenant General MV Suchindra Kumar, Central Army commander Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani, Western Army commander Lieutenant General Manoj Kumar Katiyar, South Western Army commander Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth, Army Training Command chief Lieutenant General Manjinder Singh and Eastern Army commander Lieutenant General Ram Chander Tiwari.
The next army chief, whoever he is, may have been born after the 1962 war, but he will still face the China challenge, the people said.
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The army exorcised the ghost of that war many years ago and there is no question of the military leadership being haunted by it, said military affairs expert Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd).
“However, there is a new China challenge on the borders that will require all of the new army chief’s professional attention and deft handling with particular attention to building strong deterrence capability,” Hooda added.
The dragging military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh has entered its fifth year, with no indication of an immediate resolution to the outstanding problems along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) even as India is hoping that ongoing negotiations with the neighbour will help restore the status quo ante of April 2020.
Indian and Chinese military commanders concluded the 21st round of talks on February 19, 2024. The corps commander-ranked officers agreed to continue the military dialogue and maintain peace, but there was no breakthrough.
Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the Indian and Chinese armies still have tens of thousands of troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre. Problems at Depsang and Demchok are still on the negotiating table.
When the UPA government was in power, the names of new service chiefs were announced around two months in advance. But the NDA government has made such announcements only a few weeks before the retirement of a service chief.
Successive governments have traditionally followed the seniority principle to appoint service chiefs, though there have been rare instances of senior-most officers being overlooked. The recent ones include the appointment of General Bipin Rawat as army chief in 2016 by the National Democratic Alliance government, and Admiral Robin Dhowan being made the navy chief in 2014 by the United Progressive Alliance government.
