The Hindu : New Army chief takes over

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 01, 2003

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New Army chief takes over

By Sandeep Dikshit

The outgoing Army Cheif, Gen. S. Padmanabhan (right), applauding as his successor, Gen. N.C. Vij, settles down in his office on Tuesday. - Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI DEC. 31. N.C. Vij today took over as the Chief of the Army Staff at a simple ceremony here. He succeeds S. Padmanabhan, who left for Chennai after a 27-month-long tenure during which he oversaw the Indian Army's biggest-ever forward deployment on the western borders for 10 months.

Gen. Padmanabhan personally put the insignia of the full General on the uniform of Gen. Vij, who served as his deputy for a year. In an intriguing remark on the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, the outgoing Army chief said "it is their (people of Pakistan) misfortune that they have him as their chief''. Terming the forward deployment as the highest point of his military career, he described the immense satisfaction of implementing the political directive to amass half-a-million troops along with heavy armour in battle-ready mode in record time. "It was heart warming to oversee the movement of troops towards the border. The way they moved... the smoothness, the absolute and well-practiced ease was magnificent,'' he observed. "The mobilisation of troops was certainly my proudest moment.''

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