NEW DELHI: With General Bipan Chand Joshi throwing the carefully nurtured line of succession in disarray, an unprecedented situation has arisen over the choice of the new Indian Army chief.
In choosing the commander of the world’s fourth largest army, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, who holds the defence portfolio, is in the unenviable task of either going by seniority, or setting up a precedent, or risk superseding several top ranking officers.
‘The supreme irony now is that if Prime Minister Rao goes by seniority, he sets up a precedent, which later could tum into an albatross round any future Government.
‘The lineup, after General Joshi, purely in terms of seniority is Lt. General Shankar Roy Chowdhury, heading the Army Training Command (ARTRAG), Lt General Surinder Nath, Vice Chief of the Army Staff, Lt General Surinder Singh, commander of the Northern Army, Lt General R.K. Gulati, commander of the Western Army, Lt General R.N. Batra, commander of the Eastern Army, Lt General Moti Dhar, commander of the Southern Army and Lt General A.K. Gaunam commander of the Central Army.
Traditionally, and as an almost prerequisite, all Army chiefs have been General Officer Commanding (GOC) at any of the command headquarters, particularly the operationally active, Northern and Western Command.
Unfortunately, the top two officers in the pyramid that is Lt General Roy Chowdhury and Lt General Surinder Nath are not commanding any of the five Commands of the Indian army. The Vice Chief, Lt General Surinder Nath, who is officiating as the chief, following General Joshi’s death has held command of a corps, but never the full command.
In the normal course, both these Officers were due to retire next year before General Joshi’s retirement. A smooth succession would then have taken place, with the top slot going to any of the GOCs, as is the almost rock-hard tradition.
Lt General Surinder Singh, GOC Of the operationally active Northern Amy, heads the list of the commanding officers, and was widely tipped to succeed General Joshi, after his retirement. Lt General R.K. Gulati General Officer Commanding of the similarly active Western Command interestingly took charge of the Command on the same day as Lt General Surinder Singh. A contest could therefore, have arisen, at the time of General Joshi’s retirement scheduled forDecember31, 1995. If the Government sticks to the established principle that the Indian Army Chief must necessarily hay headed any of the Commands, supersession is inevitable, Seniority would have to be given the goby, if the new chief must, like” his predecessors, hold command.
‘That undoubtedly will lead to a lot of heart bum, including possibly resignations of the superseded officers. Conversely, if the government” decides to go strictly by seniority in terms of length of service, anew precedent will be set. So far, there has never been an Army Chief who has not held command.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1994
