New Delhi: Lieutenant General Manoj Pandey will be the 29th Army Chief and will replace him after the retirement of General MM Naravane on April 30. Lt Gen Pandey is currently the Deputy Chief of the Indian Army. He will be the first officer of the Corps of Engineers to become the chief of the Army Staff. Earlier, only the officers of infantry, artillery and armoured regiments have been the presidents of the 13 lakh-strong Indian Army. In a statement on Monday, the Defence Ministry said, "The government has appointed Lieutenant General Manoj C Pandey as the next Army Chief and his appointment will be effective from April 30 afternoon."
The principle of seniority has been followed by the government in appointing Pandey to the top post, as he is the senior-most officer in the Army after General Naravane. He was heading the Eastern Command of the Indian Army before becoming the Deputy Chief of the Army on February 1. The command is tasked with protecting the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh sectors. Officials said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by PM Narendra Modi gave the green signal to the proposal to appoint Lt Gen Pandey as the next Army Chief.
Lt Gen Pandey is taking over the command of the Army at a time when the government is focusing on the integration of the three services through the setting up of a theatre command to effectively deal with the innumerable security challenges. The plan of the theatre command was being executed by India's first chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat. He was killed in a helicopter crash last December. The government is yet to appoint General Rawat's successor. It is believed that General Naravane may be one of the contenders for the post, as there is a general opinion in the defence establishment that the post should be given to an Army officer.
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