General Bikram Singh, an infantry officer, on Thursday took over from Gen VK Singh as the 27th Indian army chief.
Bikram, only the second Sikh to be elevated to the coveted top job, had to surmount many a hurdles, including a legal battle to deny him the opportunity to helm the world’s second largest army.
Commissioned in 1972 in the Sikh Light Infantry, Bikram, 59, marks a generation shift in the army, being the first chief who has not seen action in a conventional war. The last conventional war India fought was in 1971 against Pakistan.
He has held several important appointments in counter insurgency areas as the corps commander of Srinagar-based 15 Corps and Akhnoor-based 10 Division as major general.
The officer, better known as ‘Bikki’ to his friends, was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry regiment on March 31, 1972.He also served as an instructor at the Commando Wing of the Infantry School in Belgaum.
The officer was the face of the army during the Kargil war when he was serving in the Military Operations Directorate and used to brief the media about the progress in operations.
As a brigadier, Singh attended the US Army War College in Pennsylvania and has served in two assignments with the United Nations in Central America and as the deputy force commander and GOC of Eastern Division in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
