General Sundararajan Padmanabhan (Retd) the Army Chief during Op Parakram, the stand-off against Pakistan in 2001-2002 after the attack on the parliament, has passed away. General Padmanabhan had a 43-year long and illustrious career in the Indian Army.
General Padmanabhan, or ‘Paddy’ as he was affectionately called completed his schooling from the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) in Dehradun, before heading to National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla in Pune. After a year at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) he was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery on 13th December 1959.
General Padmanabhan has had many prestigious command, staff and instructional postings spanning his exemplary career in the army. Paddy served as a gunnery instructor at the School of Artillery in Deolali in Nashik, had been a Brigade Major of an infantry brigade, also served as Colonel General Staff of a Mountain Division for which he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM).
The late Army Chief has also seen two tenures as an instructor at the prestigious Indian Military Academy. General Padmanabhan is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) at Wellington and the National Defence College (NDC) at New Delhi.
The late Chief of Army Staff (COAS) commanded an independent Light Battery from August 1975 to July 1976 and went on to command an artillery regiment. From there he went on to command both an artillery and an infantry brigade. After commanding an infantry division in Punjab, he was posted as Chief of Staff of the Nagaland based 3 Corps.
With his elevation to the rank of Lieutenant General, he took over the reins of the Kashmir Valley based 15 corps. He was the Corps Commander from July 1993 to Feb 1995, the army proved its ascendency over terror in Kashmir during in that phase.
He then took over as the Director General Military Intelligence (DGMI) till September 1996 before taking over as the GOC-in-C Northern Command and moved to Udhampur. He held that position till January of 1999 when he was moved to take over the reins of the Southern Command of the army, located in Pune.
General Padmanabhan took over from General VP Malik and became the 20th Chief of Army Staff on 1st October 2000. It was during his tenure as the COAS that India had a tense nearly yearlong face-off with Pakistan in Op Parakram. The late army chief also held the office of Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee for a year till he retired on31st December 2002. An author of repute, General Padmanabhan has also penned three books.
A great military leader and a fine human being, in his demise the Indian Army loses one of its venerated soldiers.
