Bharatiya Janata Party State unit president Somu Veerraju and other party leaders paid floral tributes to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others, who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
Mr. Veerraju said it was a quirk of fate that Gen. Rawat died in the same area where he had studied (he graduated from the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington). He said Gen. Rawat had the distinction of being appointed the country’s first CDS and that his death created a void that was not easy to fill.
Mr. Veerraju recalled that Gen. Rawat had played a stellar role in the Kargil war and the surgical strike in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The Chief of Defence Staff had big plans that would reinforce the country’s defence against external aggression, Mr. Veerraju said.
Party leaders V. Suryanarayana Raju, Sk. Baji, B. Sriram, Pathuri Nagabhushanam, Lanka Dinakar, D. Umamaheswara Raju and Srinivasa Raju were present.
