On Wednesday, the sudden and tragic demise of General Bipin Rawat, Chief Defence Staff or CDS, has left a vacuum at the highest levels of India's military hierarchy. General Manoj Mukund Naravane is now the senior-most military officer in the country after Gen Rawat's passing.
There is no immediate line of succession envisaged for the CDS, so Gen Naravane could be the frontrunner for the position of the next CDS by the principles of seniority.
Gen Rawat was the first CDS on January 1, 2020 and was the 27th Army Chief. Gen Naravane took over as 28th Army Chief from Gen Rawat in December 2019. He has been a Army Chief until April 2022.
The CDS position includes Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs in the Defence Ministry, the Permanent Chairman of the Staff Committee, and the Principal Advisor to the Defence Minister.
The CDS brings together the operations, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs and maintenance of the three services within three years of the first CDS assuming office.
As the first CDS, Gen Rawat worked with the three services on integrated theatre commands to reorganise the Indian armed forces and bring them to a consensus.
Gen Rawat had formed teams headed by the Vice Chiefs of three services to study and submit recommendations on the formation of various commands.
Gen Rawat had set out an ambitious plan to roll out the theatre commands, which has been left unfinished. The next CDS will have to follow Gen Rawat's legacy to build consensus and take the reorganisation process forward.
Gen Naravane is the Chief of Army Staff COAS. He served as the Eastern Army Commander and Commander Army Training Command or ARTRAC.
Gen Naravane is from the Sikh Light Infantry and has commanded a Rashtriya Rifles battalion in Kashmir, served in the Assam Rifles and was posted as a defence attache to Myanmar.
After the momentous step of appointment of the CDS last year, Gen Naravane said that the next logical step in military reforms would be to set up integrated theatre commands and the process to set up theatre commands needed to be deliberate, thoughtful and well-considered, and its fruition will take several years.