Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 18 December 2016
:: National ::
Bipin Rawat to be next Army Chief
- In a surprise move, the government announced that Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat will be the next Chief of Army Staff.
- The appointment goes against the long-held tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post.
- By this criterion, Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command, should have been appointed.
- Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, now the Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), has been appointed the next Air Chief.
- Lt. Gen. Bakshi is widely respected as a highly competent and professional officer.
- The last time the senior-most eligible officer was not appointed was in 1983 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi chose to appoint Lt. Gen. A.S. Vaidya as the Chief, contrary to expectations that Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha would take over.
- Lt. Gen. Sinha, then Vice-Chief, chose to resign in June 1983 though he was due to retire in early 1984. With the appointment of Lt. Gen. Rawat, two senior-most officers have been superseded, which is unprecedented in the military.
- Lt. Gen. Rawat is currently the Vice-Chief of the Army. He was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978.