Lt Gen Suhag Next Army Chief

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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This Tuesday, the Union cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh named the Vice Chief of the Army Staff Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next Indian Army Chief to handle the post after General Bikram Singh. Bikram Singh is set to retire from his post on the 31st of July this year.  

The Defence Ministry sent its recommendation to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) shortly after receiving the agreement nod from the Election Commission to which the matter had been referred in view of the Model Code of Conduct. The sources said the recommendation had only the name of 59-year-old Lt Gen Suhag, who is the senior most amongst the Lt Generals.

It’s not only customary but also taken as a tradition amongst the government to appoint the next chief minister two months prior to a chief ministers retirement but the appointment of the next Army Chief was mired as a controversy by the BJP strongly opposed the step taken by the Congress government and seriously questioned the appointment and insisting that the matter should be left to the next government. The BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress and Manmohan Singh government has “only 90 hours” left to stay as the Indian government and “I leave it to their judgement of political propriety whether to appoint the new army chief or not when the vacancy is occurring end of July.”