CHENNAI: All eyes were on Chennai girl Divya Ajith Kumar at the passing out parade (POP) held at the Parameshawran drill square at the Officer’s Training Academy (OTA) here on Saturday.
Divya, who commanded the POP with aplomb, which marked the culmination of the initial part of the training of 244 gentleman and lady cadets. They will be inducted into the Indian Army as officers and will move on to join the operational regiments in the country.
Army Chief General Vijay Kumar Singh, who reviewed the parade, presented the ‘Sword of Honour’ to Divya, who emerged as the best all-rounder cadet. This is for the first time the Sword of Honour is presented to a lady cadet in the OTA’s history.
Divya said that she was now looking forward to her exciting assignments in the days ahead. It was a different experience for many present to witness the parade as the lady cadet earned the right lead the prestigious parade. Her shrieking voice reverberated in the drill area and the cadets obeyed the commands with precision strides.
Talking on the sidelines of the Pipping Ceremony, when asked about Divya’s bagging of the rare honour, Gen Singh said the Army never looked at the gender and only valued a person’s merit irrespective of the gender. “It is not a question of man or woman. It is a question of merit. It shows how the system works and we don’t look at the gender and look at how good a person is and that is what has happened today,” he said.
Queried about combat role for women, the Army chief said the role of women in combat is not a simple question and it required a deeper look. “Women have a role in lot of aspects that the Army does. If you are looking at actual combat, I think we have to think more deeply about it,’’ he said and added that the Army, wherever it operates, whether in the frontline and the people who supporting it, everybody is in combat.’’
Earlier, addressing the cadets after reviewing the parade, General Singh exhorted the cadets to be prepared for the challenges involved in conventional and proxy war.
He complimented the 15 Afghanistan and 2 women Lesotho cadets, who passed out with the current batch. The OTA has served the nation for the past 47 years, commissioning 24,000 cadets.
