The position of Chief of Defence Staff was established to integrate the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force).
The government on Wednesday named Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan (Retired) as the new Chief of Defence Staff, nine months after the demise of General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash.Â
A 61-year-old veteran of the military, Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan stepped down as head of the Eastern Command in May 2021 and was the Military Advisor to the National Security Council.
His career spans almost 40 years, during which time he has held a number of important positions and gained vast knowledge and experience conducting counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern regions.
Notification published in the gazette
As this is the first appointment of a retired officer to the position, the government published a notification in the gazette to announce the new regulations.Â
Any lieutenant general, vice admiral, or air marshal under the age of 62 would be regarded qualified candidates eligible to be nominated as CDS, according a June 2022 gazette notification published by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
After receiving the news, Chauhan, who had already retired as a lieutenant general at the age of 60, shot to the forefront of the pool of potential candidates. At the time the announcement was made, Chauhan was one of about fourteen active duty and retired army commanders who met the minimum qualifications for the role.
Who is Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan?
Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan, who was born on May 18th, 1961, joined the 11 Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army and received his commission in 1981.Â
Anupama Chauhan, an artist, is Chauhan’s wife. Pragya, the couple’s daughter, was born. As a lover of the arts, Chauhan has a particular fondness for Tibetan art, which he attributes to his wife. Anil Chauhan’s life as a general officer and later as CDS resembled Rawat’s in many ways because both men were commissioned in the 11th Gorkha Rifles and shared the same ancestral home of the Pauri Garhwal district.
As fellow officers, Rawat was claimed to have regarded Chauhan in great regard. in 2022, Anil Chauhan was one of the dignitaries present at the renaming ceremony for a military garrison along the Line of Actual Control. Additionally, Chauhan is known to be close with Ajit Doval, with whom he collaborated closely before his retirement.
Apart from his military duty, Chauhan also wrote two books: History of 11 Gorkha Rifles Regimental Centre, a history of the regiment he wrote while serving as its commander, and Aftermath of A Nuclear Attack, an analysis of the repercussions of a nuclear attack that was published in 2010. His known contacts claim that Chauhan is a consistent golfer and a passionate mask collector.
He attended both the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun and the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla.Â
Awards won
Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan has been awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, the Sena Medal, and the Vishisht Seva Medal for his service to the country.
As CDS, he will be the highest-ranking uniformed officer and first among equals, holding the same four-star rank as the heads of the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.Â
Beginning on Anil Chauhan’s date of assumption of command, he will also serve as Secretary of the Government of India’s Department of Military Affairs.Â
General Bipin Rawat
The position remained unfilled, since the untimely death of General Bipin Rawat’s on December 8 of last year. The general was 63.
Both General Rawat and his wife were among the thirteen people killed when their military helicopter went down in Tamil Nadu. An Air Force Group Captain was the lone survivor, but he succumbed to his severe burns shortly after.
Late in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed General Rawat, a renowned general, to the position of Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), with the mandate to reorganise India’s armed forces along U.S.-style joint theatre command lines. In the beginning of 2020, he became the leader.
The CDS is the highest-ranking official in the Defense Ministry’s four divisions and serves as the government’s primary military adviser.
The appointment is part of the government’s drive to increase domestic production of military hardware.
