The government has extended the tenure of Army Chief General Manoj Pande, granting him an additional month in office and effectively delaying the appointment of his successor, who was scheduled to take over at the end of May.
General Manoj Pande was set to retire on May 31 after reaching the age of 62. However, the government has not yet announced his successor, although it is widely believed that the choice is between the two senior-most Army commanders—Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi and Lieutenant General Raj Shukla.
Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi currently serves as the Vice Chief of Army Staff and has previously held the position of Northern Army Commander. Lieutenant General Raj Shukla, commissioned into the Gorkha Rifles, is the current Southern Army Commander and junior to Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi.
The last time a service chief’s tenure was extended was in 1973, when General GG Bewoor was granted a nine-month extension by the government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
