The last major appointment of the UPA-2 regime, just before poll results on May 16, was cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) chaired by the PM on Tuesday, sources said. This came after the defence ministry on Monday recommended to the ACC that Lt-Gen Suhag’s name be cleared to take over as the 26th Army chief, barely hours after getting the Election Commission’s (EC) nod. Though Lt-Gen Suhag was informed about the decision, the defence ministry did not issue a formal statement till late evening.
Lt-Gen Suhag (59) will have a 29-month tenure as chief of the world’s second-largest standing Army till December 31, 2016. In clearing Lt-Gen Suhag’s name, the government junked the BJP’s stand that the “lame-duck government” should not be in a “great rush” to fill crucial vacancies in violation of “all democratic propriety and political probity” just before it is to demit office. The government’s stand was that the “apolitical” appointment had been done as per the seniority principle in the armed forces.
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