news details |
|
|
| Present IB chief likely to continue | | Lt Gen Deepak Kapur to be next Army Chief | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, JULY 30: Decks have begun to be cleared for India's next Army Chief. He will be Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapur.
Lt Gen. Kapur is, at present, based at Udhampur in Jammu region as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the country's most vital Northern Command. He will, if all goes well, take over from the present Chief of Army Staff, Gen. J.J. Singh, after the latter's retirement.
As there is still time left for Gen. J.J. Singh's retirement from active service, Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapur has, according to reliable sources, been informally sounded on his elevation as the next Chief of Army Staff. After Lt. Gen. Hari Prasad retired on August 31, 2005 as GOC-in-C of the Udhampur-based Northern Command, Lt Gen. Deepak Kapur was moved out from the Army Training Command to operate as Lt. Gen. Prasad's successor,
Officially, the move of shifting Lt. Gen. Kapur to Udhampur as the Northern Command chief was not without meaning. It was to give him an important field assignment before the Ministry of Defence (MoD) decides to call him back to New Delhi as the next Army Chief.
Much signifcance is militarily attached to the Northern Comand, which is responsible for fighting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapur, before taking over as the next Chief of Army Staff, will have a signifcant tenure as the Northern Command GOC-in-C.
Another highly important decision the Union government has to take relates to a succesor to the present Director of Intelligence Bureau, E.S.L. Narasimhan. P.C. Haldar, curently special director in the IB, expects to get the hot seat. Will he be the new IB chief?
This question is being debated in the context of the pressure being mounted by supporters of Narasimhan for his extension. These supporters are pitching for Narasimhan's extention for the third year in a row. Their argument is that if B.K. Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary, could be given another year in service after superannuation, E.S.L. Narasimhan should not be denied this privilege.
Minister of Home Affairs, Shivraj Patil, has the mandate to submit his recommendation, in this regard, to the Prime Minister. However, with the present National Security Advisor, M.K. Narayanan, having emerged as the most powerful functionary in the power corridors, a decision on who will be the IB chief will have to be okayed by him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
