Lieutenant General Manoj Pande took over as the army’s vice head on Tuesday, succeeding Lieutenant General CP Mohanty, who retired on Monday, according to a statement from the army. Pande was the head of the Eastern Command’s HQs in Kolkata before being promoted to vice chief.
Pande, a graduate of the National Defence Academy, joined the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.
During Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala Sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt General Manoj Pande commanded an engineer regiment. Following the terror assault on Parliament in December 2001, which took India and Pakistan to the verge of war, India launched Operation Parakram, a large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western frontier.
Lt General Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along the LoC, a mountain division in the Ladakh sector, and a corps in the north-east during his 39-year military career. Before taking leadership of the Eastern Command, he was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.
General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who is widely seen as the frontrunner for the position of Chief of Defence Staff, is set to retire on April 30. When Naravane retires, Pande will be the army’s most senior commander, and he will be a strong position of army chief. Lieutenant General Raj Shukla, the commander of the Army Training Command, is due to retire on March 31.
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