The entire defence establishment, a large segment of the defence industry and even the common Indian citizen, were all waiting with bated breath for the announcement of the next Army Chief. The current Army Chief’ General Manoj Pande’s s tenure finishes on the 31 May 2024. As per seniority, and also the whispers in the corridor, the current Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi was expected to take over as COAS on 31 May 2024. Dwivedi had been shifted to VCOAS office in Delhi from the Northern Command in February, 2024, in a move that communicated the Government’s obvious plans to appoint him as the next Army Chief.
With the extension being given to Gen Manoj Pande, the whole predicted shuffle at the Army Headquarters will undergo a change. Though the Government need not go by seniority essentially, resorting to granting extension in service to a serving Chief has been undertaken in the rarest of the rare circumstances. The only time such a measure was undertaken was to deny Lt Gen PS Bhagat the rank of Army Chief, by giving an extension in service to Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw. The man denied then was Gen Bhagat was from the Corps of Engineers of the Army. This time, the man given the extension is from the Engineers. Both are Engineers, but of course in different circumstances.
Brig SK Chatterji (Retd)
