Bharat Ratna for commander-in-chief of Indian Army

On the 4^th of November, the Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said that it was time that an Indian commander-in-chief of Army received the Bharat Ratna.

“It’s time to recommend Field Marshal K.M. Cariapppa for the Bharat Ratna,” asserted General Bipin Rawat, who was present to unveil the statues of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa, and Padma Bhushan and Distinguished Service Order (DSO) awardee General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya, at Cauvery College in Karnataka’s Kodagu District.

                 

His argument was that if others can get the Bharat Ratna, then a man of such deserving personality (K.M. Cariappa) deserves the award.

                                           

                                             Here’s a stamp dedicated to K.M. Cariappa.

Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, Order of the British Empire (OBE), was the first Indian commander-in-chief (C-in-C) of the Indian Army. He led Indian forces on the Western Front during the 1947 India-Pakistani War.

He is one of the two Indian Army officers to hold the five-star rank of field marshal and was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Indian Army in 1949.

He died on 15 May 1993, at the age of 94, at the Bangalore Command Hospital where he had been receiving treatment for a few years.