A choice to succeed Gen Rawat would be taken by the government only months before he retires in December next year

by Manu Pubby

NEW DELHI: A game of musical chairs is being played with the top brass of the Army with an officer who was relegated to a training command being shifted to the operationally sensitive East to give him a shot at the top post of Army chief next year.

Lt Gen Mukund Naravane, who was posted as the head of the Army’s Training Command in December last year, would be the senior most officer of the Indian Army when General Bipin Rawat retires next year. While in the past the seniority principle has been followed to appoint Chiefs, the BJP government had selected Rawat to the top post in 2016 by bypassing two officers.

Nevertheless, Naravane’s posting to the backwater training command had come as a surprise last year, as the officer would not have got operational experience that is needed for the top post. His junior, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh was however posted as the Northern Army Commander in May this year.

Sources told ET that orders have been signed by the defence ministry to shift Naravane to Kolkata to head the Eastern Command that would give him the necessary operational experience.

A choice to succeed Gen Rawat would be taken by the government only months before he retires in December next year.

The current Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Abhay Krishna is being posted to the Central Command that is headquarted in Lucknow. The command looks after the Uttarakhand border with China that has seen an increasing intensity of transgressions.

The shifting around of posts is taking place as two senior officers – the head of the Central Command and the Southern Command – are retiring at the end of this month. Lt Gens Sanjiv Chopra and PS Rajeshwar are being elevated to the position of Army Commanders to take up the vacant positions in the South and at the training command.