Gen Bipin Rawat: A quintessential military commander

A quintessential military commander, Gen Bipin Rawat possessed an uncanny understanding of geopolitical upheavals, calibrated a tri-services military doctrine to make India face myriad security challenges, and is largely credited with bringing down militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

1958-2021

NEW DELHI: As India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Rawat was tasked to bring in theatre command and jointness among the three services, and he was pushing it with a tough approach and specific timelines in the last two years.

Known to be forthright, fearless, and blunt at times, the outstanding military commander ruffled many feathers with his controversial remarks during his tenure as Army Chief and Chief of Defence Staff. Rawat was not afraid of speaking his mind to either politicians or the three service chiefs when it came to military reform and the defence of the country.

He strongly backed a policy of hot pursuit in dealing with cross-border terrorism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir when he was the Army Chief between 2016 and 2019.

Much before the Doklam standoff in 2017, Gen Rawat had highlighted that India’s primary and long-term security challenge would come from an increasingly assertive China and that India needed to modernise its armed forces to confront it.

Gen Rawat had also played a major role in successfully carrying out the 2015 cross-border operation into Myanmar in response to a major ambush by Naga militants.