At present, the chances of an armoured corps officer commanding a Rashtriya Rifles or an Assam Rifles unit are rare.

With counter terrorist experience helping Lt Gen Bipin Rawat become the next Army chief, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikaris now planning to give more postings to armoured and artillery corps officers in anti-insurgency operations to avoid the situation faced by superseded officer Lt Gen Pravin Bakshi.

Despite being the senior most and competent, the government chose to appoint Lt Gen Rawat over Lt Gen Bakshi due to the former’s experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast.

Senior government sources told Mail Today that Lt Gen Bakshi had discussed the issue of armoured corps officers being in a disadvantageous position in light of the recent approach of the government to give weightage to counter insurgency experience in appointing Army chiefs.

MINISTRY TO OPEN NEW AVENUES

“We would find out ways to give more exposure to armoured and artillery corps officers in counter insurgency operations so that they don’t miss out on important appointments due to lack of stints in anti-terrorist missions and operations,” senior Defence Ministry sources told Mail Today.

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At present, officers from infantry get to command their units in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast but officers of the armoured corps generally get that opportunity in the deserts of Rajasthan or plains of Punjab, as they have to command tanks and mechanized combat vehicles as they can operate in that terrain only.

Tanks and infantry combat vehicles cannot be deployed in hills and mountainous terrain of Jammu and Kashmir except for the China border in eastern Ladakh, which has vast plains where the tanks can have a free run. Moreover, tank regiments are supposed to penetrate and soften any Pakistani resistance in case of a conventional war and Punjab and Rajasthan are perfect terrain to do so in case of hostilities.

Officers from armoured and artillery corps get to do their mandatory stint in counter insurgency force Rashtriya Rifles in Kashmir valley but that is done when they are relatively very young in their military lives.

OFFICERS NO LESS THAN INFANTRY MATES

“We don’t want that the officers from these arms to feel that they are any less from their infantry mates and that is why we will find out ways how they can be given command of battalions, brigades and divisions in the regions where we have antiterrorist operations,” the sources said.

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Sources in Indian Army Headquarters said such a thing can be done by the army by fixing vacancies for armoured corps and artillery officers in Rashtriya Rifles units so that they can also get counter insurgency operations if they want to.

At present, the chances of an armoured corps officer commanding a Rashtriya Rifles or an Assam Rifles unit are rare. The government is of the view that more than conventional wars, the biggest security challenge before India is from non-state actors and small groups of terrorists. Along with Bakshi, Southern Army Commander Lt Gen PM Hariz was also senior to Rawat and was overlooked. Hariz is from the Mechanised Infantry, which handles infantry combat vehicles.