General Dalbir Singh Suhag takes over as new Army Chief
Gen. Bikram Singh optimistic about border ties with China
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-01 03:30 GMT
New Delhi: General Dalbir Singh Suhag took over as the new Army Chief on Thursday. Born in a humble background, on December 28, 1954, in the Bishan village of Haryana’s Jhajjar district Gen. Suhag will have a tenure of 29 months in office. His father and uncles had also served in the Army and many of his relatives were personnel below officer rank .
Meanwhile, Outgoing Army Chief Gen. Bikram Singh said that the Army had indeed fulfilled its assurance of responding in the time and manner of its choosing towards Pakistan after the beheading of an Indian Army soldier in January, 2013.
“The responding has been done. The use of force is from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level. When I mentioned it at that time, it was aimed at operations at tactical level that have been undertaken. And this is done by the local commanders. The chiefs don’t get involved in it,” he said, shortly before handing over the baton to Gen. Suhag.
Sources pointed out that in 2013, several Pakistani soldiers had been killed in effective retaliatory firing by India at the LoC after ceasefire violations.
On China, the outgoing Army chief was optimistic. “I don’t foresee any skirmishes since we have ro-bust mechanisms in place. There is an understanding at the macro-level. We have comprehensive rules of engagement,” Gen. Singh said.