Indicating a trust deficit with the
incumbent Army Chief General VK Singh after the protracted age battle, the Government on Saturday named Eastern Army
Commander Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next Chief of Army Staff three months before the former’s retirement as against the
general practice of naming the next chief two months in advance.
Ending months of uncertainty over succession in the Army,
the announcement has also put a lid on an ugly age row that involved the office of the Indian Army Chief and saw
insinuations being hurled at the previous army chiefs and prospective candidates for the coveted job.
Now, Lt Gen Bikram Singh will be groomed for his job and
will be part of the Army Headquarters and will be taken into confidence before any important decisions. With General VK
Singh ruling out resignation as an option in the aftermath of the Supreme Court refusing to entertain his plea of being
a year younger than what has been determined by the ministry, the government’s announcement ahead of time
indicates the lack of trust between the Army Chief and the defence establishment.
Presently heading the Kolkata-based Eastern Army Command, Lt
Gen Bikram Singh will take over the command of 1.12 million-strong Indian Army from General VK Singh when the
latter retires on May 31.
“The Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Bikram Singh has been
designated as the next Chief of Army Staff, in the rank of General, with effect from the afternoon of May 31, 2012,”
defence spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in
an official statement.
The prelude to this announcement the age battle saw both the
Defence Ministry under AK Antony and the General digging in their heels and refusing to blink. The matter was brought under control only after the Supreme
Court’s intervention. However, it did spark the speculations about General VK Singh’s next course of action.
Had he decided to put in his papers, the government would have faced the prospect of the succession-line of the army
going haywire.
General VK Singh has ruled out resignation as an option and
the government decided to announce his successor. Sources in the South Block inform that all the senior functionaries
in the defence establishment including the Defence Minister, and Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma had come
to the Ministry to
official process the designation of the next chief.
Prior to this, the Military Secretary Branch issued the
retirement note for General VK Singh, just three months beforehis retirement. Generally the retirement order is
issued 11 months in advance.
The Cabinet Committee on Appointment led-by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh had given its approval for the appointment. The announcement of Lt Gen Bikram Singh has gone through its
own shares of allegations. Recently, a decade-year-old encounter case in Kashmir involving Lt Gen Bikram Singh (then a Brigadier) came to limelight after a Jammu and
Kashmir-based NGO moved the High Court saying it was fake. Also
detailed intelligence checks were done to whet Lt Gen Bikram
Singh’s family credentials as claims were made that his daughter-in-law was a Pakistani. Agencies giving him a clean
chit on this count found that his elder daughter-in-law was a US citizen with Afghan origins and she had converted
to Sikhism after marriage.
Lt Gen Bikram Singh was commissioned into the Sikh Light
Infantry Regiment on March 31, 1972.
During his long and distinguished career, spanning nearly 40
years, he has served in a variety of Command and Staff appointments. He has commanded a Corps in the Northern
Command. The General had served as Deputy Force Commander of a multi-nation UN Peace Keeping Mission in Congo. He had also
served as UN Observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 1990s.
Lt Gen Bikram Singh has studied with distinction at the
Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the US Army War College, Pennsylvania. He has also done M.Phil
in Defence Management
from the Indore University. He is married to Surjeet Kaur, housewife and the couple have two
sons.
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