On a hot March desert morning, somewhere near the Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, the then Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi looked up towards the clear blue sky even as his right hand pointed upwards palm inside. This was in response to a congratulatory greeting on his expected promotion to be the country’s 30th Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
While Gen Dwivedi did not say anything, his gesture indicated his belief in the ways of the Almighty.
He would have taken it in the same spirit when in a rare development, six days before he was to retire, the services of the Army chief Gen Manoj Pande, was extended by a month, upto June 30, 2024. So in effect, it meant another month’s wait for the next COAS, and Gen Dwivedi was the next in line according to seniority.
On Sunday, when he took over as the next COAS, Gen Dwivedi would need a lot of help from the Almighty, for the challenges are of Himalayan proportions. Gen Dwivedi is stepping into the role of leading the 13-lakh strong Indian Army at a time when historic and transformative changes are on the anvil.
The primary challenges would be to facilitate the theaterisation effort of the Indian military, to achieve effective integration between the three armed services, to usher in jointness, to possibly look at changes in the Agniveer system of recruitment, to resolve the ongoing standoff with Chinese forces in Eastern Ladakh, and very importantly, to continue with the modernization process of the Indian Army.
What would definitely aid him in the modernisation process is his keen understanding of equipment, technology and niche sectors. As DG Infantry, Gen Dwivedi “steered and fast-tracked capital procurement cases of weapons for all the three services, leading to significant and visible capability enhancement for our Armed Forces,” an official release points out.
Gen Dwivedi would also be operating in an entirely different ecosystem compared to his predecessors, except Gen Pande. Besides his own defence minister and the ministerial bureaucracy, Gen Dwivedi would have to closely interact with the foreign affairs ministry, the NSA, and with the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), all of whom will have bigger roles to play because of the focus on geostrategy.
A huge advantage that Gen Dwivedi enjoys is that his soldierly experience extends along the Northern, Western and Eastern Theatres, “in varied terrain and operational environment including deserts, high altitude, riverine, built-up area, North East and Jammu and Kashmir”. His two stints in Assam Rifles including as IGAR (GOC) and understanding of the Indo-Myanmar border would be critical in handling the huge challenge that is likely to arise from the east in the foreseeable future.
Hailing from Madhya Pradesh with his schooling from Sainik School, Rewa, Gen Dwivedi after passing-out from the National Defence Academy, was commissioned into the 18th Battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in 1984.