Govt widens pool for selection of next CDS

NEW DELHI: India’s next chief of defence staff (CDS) could be one of the three serving chiefs, any serving three-star officer, any retired chief who is below 62, or any retired three-star officer also below the same age, with the government amending the Army, Air Force and Navy rules that broaden the pool from which the CDS will be selected even as they immediately exclude the most talked about candidates for the critical post.

Scores of top serving and retired officers from the army, air force and navy (the army alone has 91 serving lieutenant generals) will now be eligible for the top post that fell vacant after General Bipin Rawat was killed in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021. His death is widely seen as having stalled India’s push towards jointmanship or theaterisation, an imperative for modern fighting forces.

It appears the government has a panel of suitable candidates in mind for the post of CDS, and the field is now open for top serving and retired officers from the three services, said military affairs expert Lieutenant General DB Shekatkar (retd), who headed a highpowered committee that presented its report on enhancing the military’s combat potential to the government in December 2016. But there’s another school of thought that suggests that the amendment of the rules shows that the government has made up its mind, and that an announcement on the new CDS could come shortly. If that is indeed the case, the hypothetical situation of a three-star general vaulting over the service chiefs (all fourstar generals) and becoming CDS and the first among equals in the military hierarchy (the person would also automatically become a four-star general) could well play out.

Earlier, it was widely believed that one of the three service chiefs may be elevated to the rank of CDS, as had happened in Rawat’s case. Also, the Shekatkar committee had recommended in its report that