Anil Chauhan (CDS)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anil Chauhan

• Anil Chauhan is a retired lieutenant general of the Indian Army. He made headlines in September 2022, after the Indian government appointed him as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) after the former CDS General Bipin Rawat died when his helicopter crashed in December 2021.

• On 13 June 1981, after completing his training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, Anil Chauhan was commissioned into the 11 Gorkha Rifles (11 GR) as a second lieutenant.

• After joining his battalion in 1981, Anil Chauhan attended the Indian Army’s Young Officers (YO) course and commando course, held in Belgaum, Karnataka.

• In 1983, Anil Chauhan became a platoon officer in his battalion after getting promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

• In 1986, Anil Chauhan was promoted and made a captain, and in 1992, he became a major and was made a commander of a company in his battalion.

• Anil Chauhan became a second in command of his battalion after getting promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in December 2004.

• As a colonel, Anil Chauhan assumed the command of a battalion of the 11 Gorkha Rifles in 2005.

• From 1 June 2009 to 1 January 2014, Anil Chauhan served in the Indian Army as a brigadier. As a brigadier, he was appointed as the commandant of the 11 Gorkha Rifles Regimental Center located in Lucknow after which he was sent to the Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV), where he drafted policies related to the welfare of the veterans of the Indian Army.

• Anil Chauhan wrote a book titled Aftermath of a Nuclear Attack: A Case Study on Post-strike Operations in 2010 in which he briefly talked about the nuclear fallout, i.e., the events that would take place after the end of a nuclear war.

  

• On 1 January 2014, Anil Chauhan was promoted and made a major general after which he was posted as chief of staff of the Kashmir-based 15 Corps, also known as the Chinar Corps, where he served till 2015.

• From 2015 to 2016, Anil Chauhan served as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Baramulla-based 19 Infantry Division, where he played a vital role in leading counter-insurgency operations and reducing terror-related activities in the Kashmir valley.

• In 2016, Anil Chauhan, after becoming a lieutenant general, was sent as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) to the Dimapur-based III Corps, which functioned under the Eastern Command of the Indian Army. He remained a GOC of the III Corps till 2018.
  

  

  

• From 2018 to 2019, Anil Chauhan was posted to New Delhi as the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), where, reportedly, he not only helped in the planning of the Balakot airstrikes in 2019 but also oversaw the execution of Operation Sunrise, which was a successful joint Indo-Myanmar military operation against the North-East rebel groups like NSCN (K) in Myanmar.
  

  In 2019, Anil Chauhan was appointed as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Kolkata-based Eastern Command of the Indian Army, where he played a vital role in keeping the Indian Army prepared against China. Anil Chauhan remained the GOC of the Eastern Command till his retirement on 31 May 2021.”

  

  

• After retiring in May 2021, Anil Chauhan worked as a military advisor of Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor (NSA) of India, at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) till September 2022.

• On 28 September 2022, the Government of India released a statement in which it said that on 30 September 2022, Anil Chauhan would take over as India’s second Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a post that was vacant for the last ten months since the demise of the General Bipin Rawat in December 2021 due to a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu. The government also announced that Anil will also serve as the Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA). The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in its official press release, stated,
  

  The Government has decided to appoint Lt General Anil Chauhan (Retired) as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who shall also function as the Secretary to the Government of India under the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) with effect from the date of his assumption of the charge and until further orders are issued by the Government of India (GoI).”

  

• Following the government’s announcement, Anil Chauhan became the first three-star general of the Indian Army to have been given a four-star general’s post after retirement. ^[5]NDTV

• While serving in the Indian Army, Anil Chauhan was deployed in the Central African country of Angola as a United Nations (UN) Military Observer (MO).

• Several media sources claim that the Government of India appointed Anil Chauhan as the second Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) due to his expertise in Chinese matters.