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Congress Leader Manish Tewari Questions Choice of Army Chief, Says Seniority Ignored

By FnF Desk | PUBLISHED: 18, Dec 2016, 10:55 am IST | UPDATED: 18, Dec 2016, 10:55 am IST

Congress Leader Manish Tewari Questions Choice of Army Chief, Says Seniority Ignored New Delhi: The appointment of Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the next Army chief took political overtones on Saturday with Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari saying the government had not respected seniority while making the decision.

In a series of tweets, Tewari said Lt Gen Rawat, who succeeds General Dalbir Singh Suhag, was fourth as per seniority and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi why those senior to him were ignored.

Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, superseded senior most army commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, who headed the Eastern Command and was next in line to be the army chief, besides Southern Command Chief PM Hariz.

Supersesion in the army is not new though there has not been any such instances in the recent past. In 1983, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had appointed Lt Gen AS Vaidya as army chief superseding Lt Gen SK Sinha, who resigned in protest.

Lt Gen Rawat’s appointment on Saturday brought to an end the guessing game borne out of the delay in announcing the new Army chief.

It has been a convention that the new Army chief is announced 60 days before the incumbent retires. This allows the chief-in-waiting the time to familiarise himself with the office of the Army chief and daily chorus attached to it. However, with just 13 days to go before Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag retires, Lt Gen Rawat is left with much less time to get acquainted functional procedures within Army Chief’s office at the South Block.