Army again promotes counter-insurgency specialist as chief of staff

Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi will take over as the next chief of army staff on June 30, 2024, continuing the trend of promoting counter-insurgency specialists in the Indian Army

The government announced on Tuesday that the present Northern Army commander, Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) Upendra Dwivedi, would take over on June 30 as the next chief of army staff (COAS).

“Vice chief of the army staff Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi [is] appointed as next chief of the army staff (COAS) with effect from [w.e.f.] afternoon of June 30, 2024,” stated a written Ministry of Defence (MoD) press release.

Gen Dwivedi will be the seventh straight counter-insurgency (COIN) specialist to be promoted to the rank of general and given the coveted appointment of COAS. As evident from the graphic, almost the entire command experience of Indian generals has lain in the realm of COIN.

Military planners have argued in the past that, with the army heavily committed in COIN operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, specialists in COIN were urgently required to lead the army.

However, this logic was discredited in December 2001, when the military was required to deploy for battle after Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001. By the time the army’s three mechanised strike corps (which are stationed deep inside India in places like Mathura and Bhopal) readied for battle and moved to the border, Pakistan’s army was ready to beat them back.

Army planners concluded that the heavy emphasis on COIN had to be replaced by the army’s traditional skills in conventional battle.

Table: Army and tri-service chiefs since September 01, 2016

	Battalion Commission	Battalion Command	Brigade Command	Division Command	Corps Command	Theatre Command	Mention of COIN
General Bipin Rawat	Infantry (11 Gorkhas)	Infantry (11 Gorkhas)	UN brigade + Rashtriya Rifles sector in Kashmir	Infantry Division in Kashmir	3 Corps (Eastern Command)	Southern Command	Yes
General MM Naravane	Infantry (Sikh Light Infantry)	Rashtriya Rifles	Infantry Brigade	Assam Rifles (Inspector Gen)	Strike Corps (Western theatre)	Eastern Command	Yes
General Manoj Pande	Engineers	Engineer Regiment	Engineer Brigade + Infantry Brigade	8 Mountain Division (Kargil)	4 Corps (Eastern Command)	Andaman & Nicobar Command	Yes
General Anil Chauhan	Infantry (11 Gorkhas)	Infantry 6/11 Gorkhas	Infantry 59 Infantry Bde (Manipur)	19 Infantry Div (Baramula, J&K)	33 Corps (Eastern Command)	Eastern Command	Yes
Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi	Infantry (J&K Rifles)	Infantry (18 JAK Rif)	Assam Rifles (26 Sector	Assam Rifles (IG AR East)	9 Corps (Western Command)	Northern Command	Yes

Thus was conceived the army’s doctrine of “Cold Start,” which involved striking Pakistan within 48 hours of a dire provocation – such as a damaging terrorist attack from Pakistan or the assassination of a top Indian leader. Instead of waiting for the mechanised strike corps to poise itself along the border, India would attack with 8-10 “integrated battle groups” (IBGs), cobbled together from tanks and troops, already located along the border.

Benefiting from surprise and concentrated force, Indian wargames had many IBGs piercing through Pakistan’s forward defences. That allowed Indian strike corps to stream through those breaches, capturing large towns and cities in Pakistan’s heartland. This would allow New Delhi to call off the war quickly, in a victorious position.

Key to this was promoting Indian commanders who were specialists in conventional operations, not COIN. However, when it came to promoting generals, India’s MoD selected COIN specialists such as General Bipin Rawat in 2016, while superseding highly-regarded tank warfare specialists such as Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Lt Gen PM Hariz.

Another major step the army has taken towards weakening its offensive strike capability has involved disbanding one of its three strike corps and replacing it with a conventional mountain strike corps. This has amounted to reducing Indian offensive strike power in the plains sectors of Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, while boosting its ability for offensive strikes in the northern and eastern mountain sectors.