Putting an end to speculation that the government might appoint Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi, superseded for the post of Army Chief, as the Permanent Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, is all set to assume chairmanship of the committee on December 31.
Admiral Lanba received the Chairman’s baton on Thursday from the outgoing Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha. He will assume charge once Mr. Raha steps down on December 31. The Chief of the Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh, will also retire the same day.
Military adviser
The government had recently set aside the “seniority-cum-merit” principle to appoint Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat the next Army Chief, superseding Lt. Gen. Bakshi, now General Offiicer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, and Lt. Gen. PM Hariz, who heads the Southern Command. Since then speculation had been rife that the government might create a permanent position of Chairman, COSC, which has been in the works for a while to act as a single-point military adviser to the political class on procurement and strategic issues.
At present, the Chairman’s post is held on rotation basis by the senior-most of the three service Chiefs. Admiral Lanba assumed command of the Navy on May 31, 2016, and will be the senior-most by the end of the year.
Mr. Raha’s tenure as Chairman, COSC, from August 1, 2014 onwards would be remembered, among other issues, for the turbulence in civil-military relations over a range of issues, especially the one rank, one pension scheme, Seventh Pay Commission implementation and parity between civilian and military ranks.
Referring to the protests over one rank, one pension, Mr. Raha on Wednesday lamented that despite being the senior-most officer, he “could not stem the agitation”. On the anomalies in the pay commission implementation, Mr. Raha observed: “I would have been happy if they had been resolved before I retire on December 31…”
