CDS General Bipin Rawat cremated with full military honours

As a priest chanted mantras, military personnel accorded gun salute and hundreds raised “Vande Mataram” slogans, the mortal remains of Gen Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat were consigned to flames at a crematorium in Delhi Cantonment on Friday – two days after they died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu.

The couple's daughters – Tarini and Krittika – lit the pyres, as the nation bid adieu to its first Chief of Defence Staff and his wife. “I had never thought that he would be taken away from us in this way,” Vijay Rawat, the younger brother of Gen Rawat, said, guiding his nieces in performing the last rites.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh paid his last tribute to the late CDS and his wife.

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“General Rawat devoted his life to serving and protecting our nation. India will remember his courage, valour and patriotism. Farewell General!” Singh tweeted after placing wreaths on the caskets at the crematorium at Brar Square in Delhi Cantonment where top military officials were also present during the funeral.

The coffins of Gen Rawat and Madhulika Rawat as well as 11 others – all draped in national flags – were flown to New Delhi on Thursday and taken to the official residence of the CDS on Kamraj Marg early on Friday.

Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BJP president J P Nadda, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the chief ministers of Delhi, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Arvind Kejriwal, Pushkar Singh Dhami, Yogi Adityanath, respectively were among the many dignitaries, who paid homage.

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, Gen M M Naravane, Admiral R Hari Kumar and Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhary respectively also paid tribute to the late military leader. So did the envoys of the United Kingdom, Israel and France to India, Alex Elis, Naor Gilon and Emmanuel Lenain, respectively/

Senior military officials from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal also arrived in New Delhi to pay homage to Gen Rawat.

The final journey of Gen Rawat and his wife commenced at around 2 pm. As the cortège proceeded from Kamraj Marg to the crematorium in Delhi Cantonment, hundreds of people lined up on the side of the roads, chanting “General Rawat Amar Rahe” and showering flower petals on the caskets.

The military buglers played the Last Post and Rouse to bid farewell to the late CDS amid a sombre 17-gun salute.

Onlookers showered flowers on his coffin during the procession, and dozens holding the Indian flag ran alongside the carriage, some shouting "Hail mother India".

The bodies of Rawat, his wife and 11 defence personnel who also died in the crash were brought to New Delhi late on Thursday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others laid wreaths before the flag-draped coffins.

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"India will never forget their rich contribution," Modi said.

'Clear headed'

Modi had handpicked Rawat, a decorated general, as CDS in late 2019 with a mission to reorganise India's army, air force and navy into a single, modern force with U.S.-style joint theatre commands.

Rawat's death comes at a critical time for India, which is embroiled in a months-long standoff with China along the parts of their shared border.

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Tensions also remain high on India's heavily-militarised frontier with arch-rival Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of stoking an armed insurgency in disputed Kashmir.

"Clear-headed and plain-spoken, Gen. Rawat became India's public face on China's aggression," said Brahma Chellaney, a specialist on India-China ties.

"Filling the void won't be easy."