Lt Gen Bikram Singh To Be Chief Of Army- 2Nd Ever Sikh In Position

[Azaad]

General Bikram Singh, has been appointed as the next Chief of the Indian Army. Ending months of speculation, the Ministry of Defence today made a formal announcement saying he will be the next Chief of Army Staff and will take over on May 31.

The ministry made a formal announcement this evening. Lt Gen Bikram Singh will be second-ever Sikh, after General JJ Singh (retd), to command the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army.

The ministry’s spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in a statement: “Lt Gen Bikram Singh, has been designated as the next Chief of Army Staff, in the rank of General, with effect from the afternoon of May 31, 2012. He will succeed the present, General VK Singh, who retires from the service on May 31 2012”.

The present Army Chief, General VK Singh superannuates on May 31. The process to announce the Army Chief is normally done in advance. In this case the Government has strictly followed the principle of seniority.

At present, Lt Gen Bikram Singh is heading the Eastern Army Command and is stationed at Kolkata. The security of the sensitive North-East and the Eastern states is under his domain of duties.

The Army-chief-designate was the Delhi-based spokesperson of the Indian Army during the Kargil conflict in May-July 1999. At that time he was a Colonel and was on the verge of being promoted as a Brigadier.

The retirement date of the present Army Chief had led to all sorts of theories in the past few months. It was only on February 10 this year that the Supreme Court refused to reconcile the date of birth (DoB) of General VK Singh. It said the DoB would remain as May 10 1950 and not May 10, 1951 as claimed by Gen VK Singh.

Had the apex court accepted the DoB of May 10, 1951, then General VK Singh would have retired after completion of a three-year tenure that is March 31, 2013. In that scenario Lt Gen KT Parnaik, the present Northern Army commander, would have been the next Chief as Lt Gen Bikram Singh would have retired in the intervening period.

An Army Chief retires at 62 years of age while all Lieutenant Generals retire at 60 years of age.

Had General VK Singh quit after the February 10 SC order, Lt Gen Shankar Ghosh would have been the senior-most officer. Unfortunately for Gen Shankar Ghosh, he retires the same day as Gen VK Singh.

Lt Gen Bikram Singh, the Army-chief-designate, was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry (Sikh LI) regiment on March 31, 1972.

During his distinguished career, he has headed the Srinagar-based 15 Corps. Lt Gen Bikram Singh has served as deputy force commander of a multi-nation UN peace keeping mission in Congo. He had also served as UN observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 1990s.

His long list of decorations include a Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), a Uttam Yudh Seva Medal (UYSM), an Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM), Sena Medal (SM) and a Vishist Seva Medal (VSM).

Lt Gen Bikram Singh has studied with distinction at the Defence Services Staff College, the Army War College and the US Army War College, Pennsylvania. He has also done an M.Phil in Defence Management from the Indore University.

He is married to Surjeet Kaur, who is a housewife. The couple has two sons.

Decorated soldier

His long list of decorations include a Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), a Uttam Yudh Seva Medal (UYSM), an Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM), Sena Medal (SM) and a Vishist Seva Medal (VSM)

Current posting

Lt Gen Bikram Singh is heading the Eastern Army Command and is stationed at Kolkata. The security of the sensitive North-East and the Eastern states is under his domain of duties.

Distinguished Career

Lt Gen Bikram Singh, the Army-chief-designate, was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry (Sikh LI) regiment on March 31, 1972. During his distinguished career, he has headed the Srinagar-based 15 Corps. Lt Gen Bikram Singh has served as deputy force commander of a multi-nation UN peace keeping mission in Congo. He had also served as UN observer in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the early 1990s.

[JSinghnz]

Awesome

[VanHelsingh]

I suppose this is good news but it also allows trouble-makers who like to downplay Sikh suffering at the hands of India by saying "The Prime Minister and now the Chief of Army are Sikh! What are you complaining about?".

Yet we all know the issue is a lot more complicated than that.

[just_someone]

vaheguru ji ka khalsa vaheguru ji ki fateh

the mans history is not that great , if you look at the indian soldiers in congo u will see that they were up to all sorts of disgusting things and read reports from aid workers over their, they said the 'soldiers' behaved really badly he was head in congo. As we now the indian army is just as bad as the panjab police when it comes to human rights.

look where he has been posted, the indian army is accused off crimes.

kashmir killing innocent ppl, gross human right abuses

congo, prostitiution, rape, stealing gold and other things

heres a new article about the allegations against him, but as usual he was found ' innocent'

Hurdles that Lt-Gen Bikram Singh cleared

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 3

Lt-Gen Bikram Singh, in the past two years, faced at least three events that could have held him back. He cleared them all exposing the manner in which senior officers running for top posts are hounded by persons inimical to them.

The most dangerous rumour spread about him was that his daughter-in-law was a Pakistani citizen. Several MPs, probably backed by his rivals, sent out complaints about the woman’s citizenship.

She is married to the elder son of Lt-Gen Bikram Singh and the young couple lives in the US. “Potential security implications” were cited to hold back his appointment as Chief of Army Staff.

The matter was sorted out only after Indian external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), was asked for a report.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet was informed, on the basis of a R&AW report, that General Bikram Singh’s daughter-in-law is an American citizen. Her father is an Afghan and mother is from Central Asia.

Before this, two other attempts were made to shoot down his candidature. In January this year, Lt Gen Bikram Singh was accused of staging a fake encounter when he was posted as Brigadier in the Rashtriya Rifles in South Kashmir’s Anantnag town in March 2001. The case mysteriously cropped up. An NGO, Yes Kashmir, filed a petition with the police and a woman, Zaituna, approached the J&K High Court in 2011 — 10 years after the incident in which one foreign militant Mateen Chacha was killed.

Lt-Gen (then Brigadier) Bikram Singh was injured while Colonel JP Jam, had died in the shoot-out that occurred in the Janglat Mandi area of Anantnag.

General Bikram Singh got a clean chit when the SSP Anantnag, also impleaded as a party in the case, told the court that the matter needed no further investigation as the case stood already established against the deceased foreign militant.

Denying that the encounter was fake as claimed by the petitioner’s family, the J&K police said the particulars of the militant had been confirmed on the basis of material evidence that included an identity card found on his person.

The third hurdle was equally serious. An Army Court of Inquiry (CoI) was conducted last year. It looked at documents and cross-examined 51 soldiers to verify if they were guilty of sexual misconduct during their year-long posting on a UN peacekeeping mission to Congo in 2008.

These men faced charges of rape and also fraternising with the local population, all forbidden by Indian military law and the UN code of conduct. Lt Gen Bikram Singh had headed the Congo mission for a part of the period.

The CoI ruled out rape. The relationships (with Congolese women) were found to have been paid for or were consensual.

[genie]

Being in a modern army de-sensetises a person and de-humanises them too. You join the army to defend your land and to kill the perceived enemies of that land. So we should not be celebrating his appointment it is no great achievement as India is not our nation yet, the day the keshri nishan sahib flag flies over the red fort in new delhi again maybe we can be proud of Sikhs holding office in a Sikh government.

[Singh559]

A lot of these high ranked officials are fake Sikhs who drink alcohol, eat meat and indulge in the five vices on a regular basis. I know from experience that these fake Sikhs even regard people like KPS Gill as a hero. They butter up to receive their positions.

With that said, of course not all are like this, but it's important to note that there ARE fake Sikhs in such positions. *cough cough manmohan singh and others*