New Delhi, May 30: Gen. V.K. Singh hands over the baton of the army chief to Gen. Bikram Singh tomorrow, marking not just a generational shift but also a renewal of bonhomie at the apex of the military establishment.

V.K. Singh and western army commander Lt Gen. Shankar Ghosh, who also retires tomorrow, are the last officers in the Indian army to have been through a full-fledged war (1971).

The tough-talking barrel-chested infantryman in V.K. Singh has followed an armoured-corps motto during his tenure as general: bash on regardless.

Bikram Singh, a lover-boy of a general and an articulate poetry-spouting soldier, is the first officer who has risen to the top post after joining service following India’s last war.

Bikram Singh or “Bikki” and wife “Bubbles” (Surjeet Kaur) openly acknowledge their love story. Bikki met Bubbles at a family wedding and immediately proposed to her. He was then an instructor in the commando wing of Infantry School, Belgaum. The parents agreed to the match and decided to take six months for the wedding.

But Bikki was impatient. He telephoned Bubbles from Belgaum and told her he was in a hurry to marry. “It was indeed love at first sight,” he has told his friends. “I was not happy with the marriage being fixed after six months. So I called her from Belgaum and told her to be prepared for marriage within a month. Of course, this required convincing parents and family members on both sides,” he has said.

Bubbles joined him in Belgaum, where he showed off his commando skills. “Bikki’s friends ensured that for nearly a month-and-a-half, I did not have to cook after I joined him. Either we were invited to a friend’s house or they would send meals to us at home,” she gushes. Bikki had his way.

His detractors say he always gets his way. Unlike V.K. Singh, the suave Bikram Singh is widely networked in Delhi. Through his 40-year career, V.K. Singh had never served in Delhi before he became the army chief. The sensitivities that he brought into the army chief’s office were, to put it mildly, earthy. So earthy, quips a bureaucrat, that he dragged down his office to a brawl with the government first over his date of birth and then by being outspoken on corruption and tardiness in the acquisition of military hardware.

Bikram Singh, on the other hand, has done several tenures in the capital, as Deputy Director-General of perspective planning (strategy) and Director-General, Staff Duties, at the Army Headquarters. Before that, he also served as Deputy Director-General in the military operations directorate when he was the military spokesperson during the 1999 Kargil war.

Shortly before relinquishing office as the Eastern Army Commander in Fort William and before he took the flight to Delhi this evening, Bikram Singh was offered garlands at the farewell ceremony. He declined the flowers and effortlessly quoted from Pushp Ki Abhilasha (A Flower’s Wish) by Makhanlal Chaturvedi.

“Chah nahin main surbala ke gehno mein guntha jaaoon, chah nahin premi mala mein bindh pyari ko lalchaoon, chah nahin samraton ke shav par he hari dala jaaoon, chah nahin devon ke sar par chadhoon, bhagya par itraoon, mujhey tod lena banmali, us path par dena tum phaink, matrabhoomi par sheesh chadhaney jis path jaayen veer anek”.

(I yearn not to be in the tresses of a young lady, nor to be woven into the garland of young lovers, I desire not to rest as wreaths on emperors, nor to bedeck the many gods; Pick me up, gardener, and strew me on the path that the brave tread to sacrifice their lives for the Motherland).

Both Bikram Singh and V.K. Singh, however, have this in common: in the last leg of their ascension to the top post, they have faced opposition. V.K. Singh, who was also eastern army commander before he became chief, was bypassed for the post of vice-chief by his predecessor, Gen. (retired) Deepak Kapoor, even though he was in line to become the chief.

Bikram Singh has been alleged in a review petition filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday to have committed errors of omission during his tenure as a commander of UN forces in the Congo. Earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed charges that he was embroiled in a fake encounter in Kashmir. A case is pending in a Kashmir court.

Bikram Singh has kept aloof from the media and chosen a low profile as eastern army commander.

But in an interview to the armed forces journal, Sainik Samachar, he has outlined his priorities: operational readiness, “address the hollowness and ensure modernisation', enhance “jointness” with other forces, ensure welfare for veterans.

“All commanders must endeavour to create a climate during their command tenures that hinges on our cherished core values, professional ethos and is conducive for growth and cohesion,” he told the defence ministry-run journal.