General Bipin Rawat and wife Madhulika to be cremated in Delhi

Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was on a visit to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington (Nilgiri Hills) to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course .

Around noon today, an IAF Mi 17 V5 helicopter with a crew of 4 members carrying the CDS and 9 other passengers met with a tragic accident near Coonoor, TN yesterday. The nation has lost one of its bravest sons. His four decades of selfless service to the motherland was marked by exceptional gallantry and heroism

General Bipin Rawat, India’s first chief of defence staff, was among 13 people killed in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, shocking the country’s three services, setting back the country’s military reforms, and leaving a direct impact on the country’s military establishment.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others expressed anguish over the sudden demise of CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other defence personnel in a chopper crash on Wednesday.

The IAF court of inquiry will establish the exact reason that led to the crash, but experts point out that the Russian-origin Mi- 17 V5s are extremely reliable helicopters compared to the obsolete Cheetah and Chetaks still being operated by the armed forces. Gen Rawat was unscathed in Cheetah crash in 2015 but weather, hills may have proved ‘deadly cocktail’ this time.

Whereas, Mi-17 V5 has powerful engines and advanced avionics, weather radars, autopilot systems and IAF crews are well trained to fly them under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), a helicopter remains an extremely complex machine that can suddenly suffer a technical snag.

These are heavily weaponised for combat operations, these choppers are used to ferry troops and cargo and can also operate in high-altitude areas like Siachen and Ladakh. They are also used to transport VVIPs like the President and PM within the country.

Gen Rawat and Madhulika married in 1986, said Yashwardhan, her younger brother. Rawat was then a Captain in the famed 5/11 Gorkha Rifles -the unit his father had served in, and would later command.

Madhulika Rawat belongs to the Sohagpur royal family in MP. Her father Kunwar Mrigendra Singh was a two-time Congress MLA from Kotma constituency in Shahdol in 1967 and 1972.

The cremation ceremony of General Bipin Rawat, India's first CDS, and his wife Madhulika Rawat will be held in Delhi Cantonment on Friday, reported ANI. The bodies would be brought to his house for people to pay their respects between 11 am and 2 pm on Friday, followed by a funeral procession which will start from Kamraj Marg to Brar Square crematorium in Delhi Cantonment.

Russia's Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said his country has lost a very close friend as he condoled the demise of India's first CDS General Bipin Rawat. "(He) played a big role in the promotion of our bilateral special and privileged strategic partnership. Grieving together with India. Goodbye, friend," Kudashev tweeted. He also said India lost a dedicated hero.

We at VARINDIA salutes to the brave soldier of the country and we are proud of General Rawat, and the brave die never, though they sleep in the dust.We salute our fallen heroes.