NEW DELHI: The government has “no immediate plan” to appoint another four-star general, in the shape of a chief of defence staff (CDS) or a permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee (CoSC), on par with the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs.
This, in effect, scotches speculation that Eatern Command chief Lt-General Praveen Bakshi may be accommodated as the CDS after being superseded by Lt-Gen Bipin Rawat, who will take over as the next Army chief from General Dalbir Singh Suhag on December 31.
Military circles are all agog over the post of a new tri-Service chief being in the offing after the government selected Army vice-chief Lt-Gen Rawat for the top post last Saturday, bypassing two officers senior to him, Lt-Gen Bakshi and Southern Command chief Lt-Gen P M Hariz.
But defence ministry sources on Tuesday said the plan to have another four-star general or a permanent CoSC chairman was still being fine-tuned as part of the proposed larger higher defence management reforms, which would also include more integrated tri-Service commands to handle the domains of space, cyber and special operations in the long-term.
“There are complex issues of functional roles, structures, interfaces and charters involved in the deliberations, which are also being examined by some committees. The Union Cabinet will also finally have to approve everything. All this is not going to happen by December 31,” said a source.
So, it remains to be seen whether Lt-Gens Bakshi and Hariz would like to serve under Lt-Gen Rawat after he takes over the reins of the 1.3-million strong Army on December 31. Lt-Gen Rawat, who was born in March 1958, will get a full three-year term as the chief. A Service chief is appointed for a term of three years or till the age of 62, whichever is earlier.
Lt-Gens Bakshi and Hariz, in turn, can serve till July and November 2017, respectively, when they turn 60. But they may put in their papers much earlier, like Lt-Gen S K Sinha had done when Indira Gandhi superseded him to appoint Gen A S Vaidya as the Army chief in 1983.
Lt-Gen Rawat, on his part, has sought the cooperation of the two in telephone calls he made to them a day after being made the chief-designate by the government. There is, of course, a controversy brewing over the way the NDA government has jettisoned the long-established seniority principle in selecting Lt-Gen Rawat as the next chief
One section believes this will inevitably lead to politicization of the avowedly apolitical armed forces in the long run, with top generals actively seeking to acquire “political patronage” to push their promotion claims.
But others argue that it’s good the ritualistic appointments of military chiefs, based just on seniority and the dates of birth, has been dumped. “The apex political executive should choose who it wants as the chief from the seven Army commanders (of six regional and one training command) and the vice-chief to manage its strategic and security policies,” said a senior official.
Bureau Report
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