Gen Pande was to retire from service on 31 May. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved one month's extension in service of Gen Pande, the defence ministry said.
Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande (Wikipedia)
In a rare and unusual move amid the Lok Sabha elections, the government on Sunday, 26 May, announced extending Army Chief General Manoj Pande’s tenure by one month, days before his superannuation. General Pande was to retire from service on 31 May.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved one month’s extension in service of Gen Pande, the defence ministry said.
The extension to the General came nearly five decades after the then Indira Gandhi-led government extended the tenure of Army Chief General GG Bewoor by a year in April 1974. Gen Bewoor retired on 31 May 1975.
In view of extension given to General Bewoor, the next in line Lt Gen Prem Bhagat, known to be a fine military officer, retired from service without becoming the Army Chief, according to military experts.
Before General Bewoor, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was given an extension in view of the victory in the 1971 war.
“The Appointments Committee of Cabinet on 26 May approved the extension in service of Chief of the Army Staff Gen Manoj C Pande for a period of one month, beyond his normal age of superannuation (31 May) that is up to 30 June under Rule 16 A (4) of the Army Rules 1954,” the defence ministry said.
Lieutenant-General Upendra Dwivedi, currently the Vice Chief of Army Staff, is the senior-most official after General Pande. The senior most official after Lt Gen Dwivedi is Lt Gen Ajay Kumar Singh, the Southern Army Commander.
Interestingly, both Lt Gen Dwivedi and Lt Gen Singh, who are course mates, are set to retire on 30 June, the day the extension given to Gen Pande comes to an end.
However, the government still will have the option of either appointing Lt Gen Dwivedi or Lt Gen Singh to the top post, going by the previous example of appointment of Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria as the IAF Chief on the day he was set to retire in September 2019.
It is learnt that Lt Gen Singh is a strong contender for the Army Chief’s post.
Central Army Commander Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani could be the main contender if the new government looks beyond Lt Gen Dwivedi and Lt Gen Singh, said a source.
Lt Gen Dwivedi, who has vast operational experience along the frontiers with China and Pakistan, assumed charge as Vice Chief in February succeeding Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar.
Gen Pande took charge as the 29th Chief of the Army Staff on 30 April, 2022 after Gen MM Naravane retired from service. Before assuming the charge of the top post, Gen Pande was serving as the Vice Chief.
He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to helm the force. In his distinguished career, Gen Pande also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, which is India’s only tri-services command.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982.
Meanwhile, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday attacked the Narendra Modi government over the extension of the tenure of Gen Pande, saying the move in the midst of elections is not desirable.
In a post on social media platform X, Owaisi said the armed forces should be kept out of politics by the ruling party.
The Hyderabad MP said, “The extension (of) tenure of the serving army chief #COAS during the election campaign, days before he was to retire, is not desirable. The @narendramodi government was well aware of his date of retirement and should have announced a replacement long ago.”
“Our armed forces should be kept out of politics by the ruling party but over the last decade, we have seen the Modi regime use and misuse our soldiers for its electoral benefit. We have seen this on the China border where our soldiers are unable to patrol to the LAC,” the AIMIM chief said.
He claimed this latest move on General Pande again reflects “poorly” on PM Modi, the defence minister and all those involved in decision making on India’s national security.
“That the extension given to Gen Pande is only for one month means it is a temporary measure, essentially showing the complete lack of governance in this regime. If it is not incompetence, then it has to be something more sinister and conspiratorial,” Owaisi alleged.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
Jun 15, 2024
Jun 15, 2024
Jun 09, 2024
Jun 08, 2024
Jun 03, 2024
Jun 01, 2024
