General Bikram Singh, an infantryman has assumed command of the 1.13 million strong Indian Army, bringing to an end the controversial 26 month tenure of his predecessor Gen V.K. Singh, who retired after 42 years of service. He is only the second Sikh to be elevated to the post.
Bikram Singh, the 27th Indian Army chief, had to surmount a number of hurdles, including a legal battle that almost denied him the opportunity to the helm the world’s second largest army. He was hitherto the Kolkata-based Eastern Army Commander and will serve for 27 months as the army chief.
Commissioned in 1972 in the Sikh Light Infantry, Bikram Singh, 59, marks a generation shift in the army, being the first chief who has not seen action in a conventional war. The last conventional war India fought was in 1971 against Pakistan to liberate Bangladesh. During the last major operation the Indian Army was involved in – Kargil in 1999 – he was posted in the Directorate General of Military Operations at Army Headquarters and used to conduct the daily media briefings.
His ascension to the top had come in doubt over his predecessor’s claim that he was born on May 10, 1951 and not in 1950, thereby allowing him 10 months more as chief till March 2013 – by which time Bikram Singh would have retired.
However, the Supreme Court, in February, heard a petition on V.K. Singh’s age and upheld the defence ministry decision to treat the birth year as 1950 in official records. This paved the way for Bikram Singh to be named army chief-designate in March, ending months of a bitter succession row.