General Naravane, Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria top contenders for CDS post

Army Chief General MM Naravane and former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd) have emerged as the top runners to fill in the position left vacant after the accidental death of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday.

About Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria

In a career spanning over four decades, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria will be chiefly remembered for giving shape to two important fighter aircraft deals – Rafael and Mark1A indigenous Tejas jets. His highest posting was as Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force. He retired recently.

Bhadauria has a flying experience of over 4,000 hours and has flown more than 26 types of fighter and transport aircraft. He also held many important administrative and operational positions during his 42 years in service.

Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria was in charge of IAF when India and China were engaged in a serious border dispute in Ladakh last year. It was under his command that the IAF deployed most of its frontline fighter jets along the LAC then.

About General M M Naravane

General Naravane is the senior most serving Defence personnel in the country right now, which makes him most eligible to replace late General Rawat as the CDS. As the chief of Indian Army, he can serve till April 2022.

The chiefs of Navy and Air Force are relatively inexperienced. Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhary took over as the IAF chief on September 30 this year while Admiral R Hari Kumar became the Chief of Naval Staff on November 30.

Also read: Inquiry has begun into chopper crash that killed CDS Rawat: Rajnath Singh

Naravane took charge as the 27th Chief of the Army Staff on December 31, 2019 from none other than late General Rawat. Earlier, Naravane was the Vice Chief of the Army and before that he was head of the Eastern Command of the Army along the Indo-China border.

In over 40 years of his association with the Army, General Naravane has held several key positions in conditions which includes counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir as well as the North-East. He has also commanded a Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and an infantry brigade on the eastern front.

Criteria for becoming Chief of Defence Staff

Media reports say that the post of the Chief of Defence Staff will be filled in the next week or so and General Naravane and Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd) are the front runners for the post.

There isn’t any set of rules yet to appoint a CDS. It is more of a bureaucratic appointment, which was first introduced by the Modi government in 2019 to bring in more synergy in the three forces – the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The government will most likely choose one of the commanding officers of the three forces while considering merit as well as seniority. The upper age limit for holding the post of CDS is 65 years.