NEW DELHI: This year will see a rare coincidence wherein the Indian Army will see a major reshuffle at the top level. The Army will get five new Commanders in Chief (Army Commanders) as the incumbents will be superannuating this year.
The first two Army Commanders to superannuate are Lt Gen Amardeep Singh Bhinder (South Western Command, Pune) and Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri (Central Command, Lucknow), who will be retiring in March. The last among the five will be Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita (Eastern Command, Kolkata) who will be retiring in December. The other two officers, Lt Gen SS Mahal (Army Training Command, Shimla) and Lt Gen Nav K Khanduri (Western Command, Chandigarh), will be retiring in between.
Army Commanders of the Udhampur based Northern Command, Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi and Pune-based Southern Command will continue to be at the helm.Any officer who becomes the Commander in Chief should have a minimum of 18 months or more of residual service. Keeping the residual age, this cycle of so many officers retiring from the service in the same year comes rarely, said a source.
A Commander in Chief (CinC) of the Armed Forces is an independent authority to fight a war in the theatre of war and the headquarters of the command function as the war headquarters. There are a total of 17 Commands, including seven commands each of the Army and Indian Air Force, and three Commands of the Indian Navy. The country’s war waging machinery also includes three tri-services commands — the Strategic Forces Command, Andaman and Nicobar Command, and the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC).
There will be change in command at the Andaman Nicobar Command too, as Lt Gen Ajai Singh will also be hanging his uniform this year. CISC Air Marshal BR Krishna is to retire in January 2024 and is likely to be replaced by a CinC of the Indian Army.
‘Rarely do so many officers retire the same year’
Any officer who becomes the Commander in Chief should have a minimum of 18 months or more of residual service. Keeping the residual age, this cycle of so many officers retiring from the service in the same year comes rarely, said a source