A day after the sudden demise of Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat in a chopper crash, the Centre has started deliberations to look out for his successor. Since the CDS does not have any operational duties, there is no urgency for the government to announce the name. A list of probable candidates is being worked out, and will be put before the cabinet committee on appointments.
The CDS is a military officer but is also a bureaucrat, whose primary task is to provide impartial advice to the political leadership. Unlike the military, there is no direct line of succession for the office of CDS. It means the government can pick anyone for the post considering the seniority. Any officer equivalent to the rank of Army Commander or flag officers of the armed forces is eligible for the position, as per the rules.
After Rawat, Army Chief General M.M. Naravane is the senior-most among the three service chiefs. Both navy and air force have recently got their respective chiefs. This makes General Naravane the front-runner to the CDS post as he has only four months in the office (retiring in April 2022).
If General Naravane becomes the CDS, the government will also have to find out the next army chief. Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General C.P. Mohanty and Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Y.K. Joshi are the next in the hierarchy and incidentally are coursemates.
Tri-service inquiry ordered
Meanwhile, the government has set up a tri-service inquiry into the helicopter crash that resulted in the death of General Rawat, his wife Madhulika, and 11 other personnel of the armed forces near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, who is the Commander of the Indian Air Force’s training command and a helicopter pilot himself, is heading the tri-services inquiry.
The black box of the ill-fated Mi-17 V5, which has Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), has been recovered. FDR analysis will establish at which height the chopper was flying. The CVR will bring out the conversation between the pilot and co-pilot before the crash.
Although several experts suspect that the chopper was flying at a low level, normally height and flypast are allocated by the air traffic controller if the aircraft or helicopter is flying with a VIP. And the pilot cannot divert from the assigned altitude.
Pilot of the ill-fated helicopter Wing Command P.S. Chauhan had over 14 years of flying experience and was well qualified to fly with a VIP.
It is believed that the chopper was on its descending path. In such case, normally the co-pilot is supposed to maintain a lookout in case of bad weather.
"It appears that the pilot could have lost track of the altitude of aircraft while looking outside, as the weather was very bad," said a helicopter pilot. The terrain had a lot of high length trees, he said.
The lone survivor, Wing commander Varun Singh, who is battling for life in the hospital, would be able to throw some light on the cause of the crash. So, his statement will be crucial for the investigating team.
“Group Captain Varun Singh is on life support in the Military Hospital at Wellington and all efforts are being made to save his life,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed Parliament.
Positive identification of bodies continues
Defence sources claimed that the severity of air crash had led to difficulty in the positive identification of bodies. "All possible measures are being taken for positive identification considering the sensitivities and emotional well-being of the loved ones," a defence source said. Assistance of close family members will be taken in addition to scientific measures for positive identification, he said.
So far, the positive identification of only three bodies (Gen Bipin Rawat, Madhulika Rawat and Brig LS Lidder) was possible and their mortal remains would be released to the next of kin for final religious rites as desired by the respective families.
Sources said that the process for positive identification of the remaining bodies is continuing. “The mortal remains will be kept at the Mortuary of Army Base Hospital till completion of positive identification formalities.”
Appropriate military funerals of all the deceased are being planned in close consultation with close family members, the source said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and NSA Ajit Doval will pay final tributes to the deceased when their bodies arrive at Delhi's Palam Air Force base this evening.