It was a proud moment for 22-year-old Gaurav Hridaya, who was adjudged the best all-rounder cadet at the passing out parade at Indian Military Academy (IMA) on Saturday.
Besides a silver medal for standing second in the order of merit in regular course, Meerut-based Hridaya received the coveted Sword of Honour from Arunanchal Pradesh Governor Gen. (Retd) J.J. Singh for being the ‘Best All Round Gentleman Cadet’ of IMA.
Cadet Sumeet S. Lahane was awarded gold medal for standing first in the course while Yogendra Kathayat won bronze medal in the same course.
They were among the 602 cadets who became proud officers of the Indian army today, after they crossed the “final step” at the hallowed portals of the historic Chetwode building.
23 other cadets joined paramilitary force Assam Rifles following a ceremonious parade.
Gen Singh, who has been an alumni of the academy in 1964, was the reviewing officer of the parade. He also inspected a guard of honour while choppers showered petals.
132 cadets were from Uttar Pradesh, 56 from Haryana and 51 from hill state of Uttarakhand.
Besides, 625 cadets, 23 other cadets are from seven countries of Bhutan, Mauritius, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka also passed out of the IMA this year.
All the cadets were administered oath to the constitution by the Adjutant of the IMA amid tight security here.
From its first course of 40 Cadets, the IMA has so far trained nearly 49000 officers for the Indian army.
Later talking to reporters, Gen. (Retd) Singh termed the Naxalism as the bigger threat than the terrorism and asked the freshly recruited officers to keep updated on advanced methods to deal with such threats.
Regarding involving army in dealing with the problem of Naxalism, Gen. (Retd) Singh said it was up to the three chiefs of armed forces and the centre to take a decision on the issue.
When asked whether the cases of corruption are tarnishing the image of Indian army, Gen (Retd) Singh said although there are some black sheep but such cases cannot dent the honest image of army.
