After the untimely demise of General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Mukund Naravane is a frontrunner to occupy the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), according to reports.
Though there is no official word on who will be the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Also it is not immediately known whether the government will appoint a new Chief of Defence Staff soon.
The prime minister-led Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was briefed on Wednesday about a military helicopter crash that led to the death of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and other defence personnel near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the meeting was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, official sources said.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Misra and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba also attended the meeting, in which the CCS members were briefed about the tragic incident.
Gen. Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff and who had a vast experience across a wide spectrum of conflict and terrain profiles, was among the 13 people killed on Wednesday when the military helicopter they were travelling in crashed in a hilly area in apparently foggy conditions near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and state officials said.
The Mi-17V5 helicopter carrying Gen. Rawat, the 63-year-old tri-services chief who would have completed two years at the end of this month in the new post after serving as the Army chief, crashed killing 13 of the 14 people on board including his wife and 11 other armed forces personnel, the officials said. The lone survivor, Group Captain Varun Singh, Directing Staff at DSSC, is currently under treatment at a military hospital in nearby Wellington, the IAF said.
Gen. Rawat, an outspoken General with his remarks sometimes kicking up a controversy, was on a visit to the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington (Nilgiri Hills) to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course. The IAF said a Court of Inquiry has been ordered into the accident.
(With inputs from PTI)