New Delhi, Oct. 31: When the new vice-chief of the Indian Army takes charge tomorrow, he will herald a generational change in the top brass as he will be the first officer commissioned after India’s last full-fledged war in 1971 to rise to the post.
Lt Gen. S.K. Singh takes over from Lt Gen. A.S. Lamba who retired today after 40 years in service. As a young officer, Lt Gen. Lamba became a war veteran within a couple of months of being commissioned in 1971.
He was a second lieutenant in his artillery unit that gave fire support to the Indian infantry in its dash through the Pakistani ranks on the Jessore-Khulna-Dhaka axis as the Indian Army charged into the then East Pakistan capital and forced the surrender on December 16 that year and midwifed the birth of Bangladesh.
With Lt Gen. Lamba retiring today, there are only four more officers in the Indian Army — including the chief, Lt Gen. V.K. Singh — who were commissioned into service in the year of India’s last full-fledged war.
After the war, Lt Gen. Lamba, who was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery, converted to a paratrooper. Packing commanding authority into his diminutive figure, Lamba went into combat again in counter-insurgency in Nagaland and Manipur and with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka.
“When you see action at such close hand when you are so young — I was barely 19-20 years of age in 1971 — there is little to be afraid of for the rest of your life,” he told The Telegraph in a recent conversation.
Lt Gen. Lamba commanded a Mountain Brigade, the 16 Infantry Division, the elite 21 Strike Corps and the Army Training Command headquartered in Shimla.
Lt Gen. S.K. Singh, who takes over as the vice-chief tomorrow, has commanded a brigade in the Siachen Glacier, an infantry division on the Line of Control, a corps in Jammu and Kashmir and the recently created South Western Command headquartered in Jaipur.
Lt Gen. S.K. Singh could have an unusually long tenure as the vice-chief — over two years. He is from the regiment to which the late Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw belonged, the 8 Gorkha Rifles, and is its colonel commandant.
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