Eastern Command chief Lt-General Manoj Mukund Naravane.

NEW DELHI: In top-level appointments in the Army, Eastern Command chief Lt-General Manoj Mukund Naravane has been named as the next vice chief of the 13-lakh strong force, in an indication that he is likely to succeed General Bipin Rawat when he retires on December 31 this year.

The other top appointments include Lt-Gen Anil Chauhan as the new chief of the Eastern Command (Kolkata), while Lt-Gens A S Kler, I S Ghuman and R P Singh will head the South-Western (Jaipur), Central (Lucknow) and Western (Chandimandir) Commands respectively.

But it’s the posting of Lt-Gen Naravane (Sikh Light Infantry), who will replace Lt-Gen Devraj Anbu as the vice chief on August 31, which has evoked the maximum interest. After Lt-Gen Naravane, the second in line for the Army chief’s post is the present chief of Northern Command (Udhampur), Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh (Dogra Regiment), who was the director-general of military operations during the “surgical strikes” against insurgent camps in Myanmar in June 2015 and terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in September 2016.

“With Lt-Gen Naravane coming as the vice chief, it will now be highly unusual if Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh is appointed over him in the Army headquarters later this year. A superseded Lt-Gen can continue as the head of a command outside Delhi, but will find it difficult to serve under someone junior in the Army headquarters,” said a senior officer.

In a move that had set tongues wagging last year, Lt-Gen Ranbir Singh was appointed the head of an operational command, the Northern Command, before Lt-Gen Naravane, who was then heading the Army Training Command ( Shimla ). But Lt-Gen Naravane was later appointed as the Eastern Command chief in October 2018.

All calculations, of course, will go haywire if the government decides to create the long-pending post of a fourth four-star general, after the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs, in the shape of a permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee to handle tri-Service issues in planning, budgeting, procurements, training and logistics.

Though earlier governments almost always followed the seniority principle to anoint a new military chief, the NDA government first appointed Gen Rawat as the new Army chief in December 2016 by superseding two Lt-Generals (Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz) senior to him.

Then, earlier this year, the NDA government had appointed Admiral Karambir Singh as the new Navy chief by superseding Andaman Nicobar Command chief Vice Admiral Bimal Verma , who is six months senior to the former. The government has contended that merit, and not just seniority, will be the deciding factor in selecting officers for top ranks in the armed forces, as was earlier reported by TOI.

