By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Expressing shock over the death of General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash, former Army chief Gen JJ Singh on Wednesday said he will be remembered as an outstanding leader who laid a roadmap for modernising and synergising the armed forces.
As the Chief of Defence Staff, he had tough decisions to make and he did a very good job in trying to synergise the three armed forces, he told PTI over the phone.
The former Army chief said the modernisation, which was going to happen soon, will continue because he laid a roadmap for it.
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“I salute him for his work. He will always be remembered as one of the outstanding leaders of our Army. He would be remembered for his contribution, for the armed forces, I would say,” General Singh added.
Sharing memories, General Singh said he was “very close” to Rawat.
“He was my junior. We served together when I was the Army chief. I know him closely and saw him rise from the rank of a Colonel to Brigadier to Major General and upwards to Army commander and then the Army chief,” he said.
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He said Rawat comes from the Gorkha Rifles and it was one of the battalions under him in Baramulla, Uri sector, when he was the brigade commander.
“So, you know, in action you become very close to each other and that battalion did excellent work under me,” he said.
General Singh recalled, “General Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat took us to their battalion to celebrate and honour me (a few years ago).”
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“My wartime connections with him, I would call the proxy war in Kashmir as a war, and in that bonding was so close that till today they remembered me as a brigade commander who was fighting from the front. I know him very well, as a chief also, I did keep in regular touch with him. I liked him for his professionalism and for his capabilities and he did very well,” said General Singh.
D S Hooda, a former Northern Army commander and the main architect of the 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads in the PoK, said the news of the death of General Rawat, his wife and 11 other armed forces personnel’s was shocking.
Hooda told PTI, “We were Army commanders together. He was the vice-chief when this planning for surgical strikes were going on.”
“He would give very nice inputs, give good advice that helped us in making better plans, so that I remember about him,” said General Hooda.
“The kind of push he gave as India’s first CDS to integrated theatre command, I think that to me was giving a very firm direction. He put this whole reform process on the right path,” said General Hooda.
Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other armed forces personnel died on Wednesday after a military helicopter they were travelling crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
