Naravane, Bhadauria frontrunners for CDS post
Gen MM Naravane, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria
New Delhi: As the nation mourns the sudden demise of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash, the question of who will fill Rawat's boots is on everyone's minds.
Top sources said the post will be filled in the next week and the frontrunners for the same are Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Mukund Naravane and former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd).
As per the rules, any Commanding Officers or Flag Officers of the armed forces are eligible for the position.
General Rawat had taken over the charge as the first CDS of the country in January 2020. Normally, the upper age limit for the CDS has been fixed at 65 years.
General Naravane is senior to his counterparts in the Navy and Air Force. Naravane, who took over as the 27th Chief of the Army Staff on December 31, 2019, previously served as Vice Chief of the Army and prior to that headed the Eastern Command of the Army which takes care of India's nearly 4,000-km border with China.
He was also part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and had served as India's defence attache at the Indian Embassy in Myanmar for three years. He was appointed to the Army War College as Directing Staff in the Higher Command Wing and served two tenures at the Integrated Headquarters of MoD (Army), New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria joined the fighter stream of IAF in June 1980 and retired after 42 years of service during which he was the architect of two mega fighter aircraft deals which included 36 Rafales and 83 Mark1A indigenous Tejas jets. Bhadauria has clocked over 4,250 hours of flying and has experience on over 26 different types of fighter jets and transport aircraft.
During his tenure as Chief of the Air Force, India and China were locked in a bitter dispute on the eastern border in the Ladakh region. The Indian Air Force had deployed most of its frontline fighters in key frontier airbases along the Line of Actual Control as ties remained highly strained for months.