NEW DELHI: General Dalbir Singh on Thursday took over as the 26th Army Chief. He would at the helm of the 11.3-lakh-strong Army for the next 30 months.
When the UPA Government picked him for the post just three days before the Lok Sabha results in May, it had caused a political controversy with the BJP objecting to the Manmohan Singh administration making such key appointments at the end of its tenure.
However, after coming to power, the Narendra Modi Government said it would not object to his appointment as the Army Chief.
General Dalbir Singh took over the reins from General Bikram Singh, who retired on Thursday after a 26-month tenure at the helm of the world’s second largest standing Army.
The 59-year-old General, who is now the most senior infantry officer in the Army, was commissioned into the 4th battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force) in 1974.
He is now the third Gorkha officer after Genral G G Bewoor and Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to become the Army chief.
General Dalbir Singh, who prefers not to use his surname Suhag, becomes the second Army Chief, who has never participated in a full-fledged conventional war that India had fought, the last till date being the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.
General Dalbir Singh was the vice-chief of the Army for nearly eight months.
During his career, he had served as the Kolkata-based Eastern Army Commander from June 2012 and he was responsible for defending the North East states till he became the vice-chief.
His promotion as the Army Commander had got into trouble in May 2012 after then Army chief General V K Singh imposing a disciplinary and vigilance ban on him over allegations of botched up intelligence operations in the North East, where he was the 3 Corps Commander.