Four-star Gen Anil Chauhan takes over as India’s second CDS on Friday

India’s second Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Anil Chauhan takes over as Secretary, Department of Military Affairs, in the rank of full General and with four stars at the CDS Headquarters on Friday morning. It is understood that General Chauhan’s father is going to put four stars on his illustrious son.

General Chauhan, former Eastern Army Commander and military advisor to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, has his agenda of military theatrization on the top priority and first of theatre commands are expected to come into existence by the end of this year.

General Chauhan was the Director General Military Operations (DGMO) of first CDS Gen Bipin Rawat when he was Army Chief and the two were close comrade in arms with the late commander fond of his 11 Gorkha battalion junior. Gen Rawat had told this correspondent about the war capacity of Gen Chauhan against India’s adversaries and his ability to call a spade a spade.

Since Gen Chauhan could not make it to Army Chief rank on grounds of seniority, he was aiding NSA and first CDS in framing the military response to the PLA belligerence in East Ladakh sector. As Eastern Army Commander, Gen Chauhan was praised for his efforts to upgrade the military infrastructure all along the LAC in Sikkim and in Arunachal Pradesh. In Army, he is known to be a no-nonsense General, who lets his actions speaks rather than words.

The Modi Government’s decision to appoint Gen Chauhan as CDS also lay to rest all the excitement in the military headquarters with all the serving and retired candidates expecting to be appointed as the successor to Gen Rawat.

While Gen Chauhan takes over as second CDS, he has to find a via media with the three-armed wings on theatrization of commands as well as synergizing the three services by breaking down silos. Even though the three services want to protect their turf and power, the future lies in synergy and military theatrization in order to respond to a more powerful adversary.