New Delhi India’s first Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat, 63, was an outspoken military leader who took pride in his beliefs, took tough decisions at the cost of being unpopular in some circles, thought outside the box and challenged the status quo Known for giving, people who have known him for decades, he said.
He was also a dog lover and a rare general who did not play golf. Rawat narrowly escaped a helicopter crash in India’s northeast in February 2015. His leadership and courage were appreciated on foreign soil as well.
A retired three-star general, one of Rawat’s best friends, said General Rawat epitomized military professionalism. “He was driven by his own beliefs. He took tough decisions even when he was not popular. The interests of the organization always came first for him and he didn’t really care about his popularity,” said Lt Gen BS Sandhu (Retd.) , who had known Rawat for more than 45 years and was his course mate in National Defense based at Khadakwasla. Academy.
Sandhu’s wife Kuka and Madhulika studied together at Daulat Ram College in Delhi and were best friends like their husbands.
Rawat’s previous appointments included Army Chief, Vice Chief of Army Staff, Southern Army Commander, Corps Commander in the North-East and Division Commander in Kashmir.
But the assignment he most loved to talk about was his tenure as the commander of the United Nations North Kivu Brigade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the late 2000s. “It was one of my most memorable assignments. I’m glad I was able to make some changes there.” Locals were contemptuous of UN peacekeepers, questioning what difference they have made and accusing the mission of doing little to protect them. Angry crowds Stones were often thrown at UN vehicles on the streets of Goma, the capital of North Kivu and where the Indian brigade is based.
“Despite Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter authorizing the use of force in certain scenarios, we were not fighting with our equipment. We decided to fight with our equipment,” Rawat told this correspondent in 2008. Were covering the conflict in Congo.
Rawat changed the velvet-glove strategy to an iron fist within a month of his arrival, often using attack helicopters to blame rebel groups responsible for civilian deaths, recruiting child soldiers and displacing millions. ordained. He was able to control the situation quickly.
Under Rawat’s leadership, the Indian brigade saved a major province of the Congo from rebel capture. Lt Gen Babakar Gay, the then force commander of the United Nations Mission in Congo, wrote in a citation given to Rawat that it was because of his “leadership, courage and experience” that Goma, the capital of North Kivu, never fell, the country’s eastern region. became stable. And the main rebel group was forced to come to the negotiating table.
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