Team News Riveting
Lieutenant General PGK Menon, son of an army Subedar, would be a key person to break the India-China ice in the present standoff.
Being the commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, also known as the Fire and Fury Corps, Lt. Gen. Menon had been leading the corps commander level meeting to resolve the stand-off between India and China in the Eastern Ladakh region. He had replaced Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh.
Lt. Gen. Menon was born in 1964 and hailed from Kerala. Known for carrying along his junior officers in decision-making, he had been in Leh since the beginning of the month. He had also been a part of the 21 September meeting, which was the first-ever joint military and diplomatic-level meeting between India and China.
The Fire and Fury Corps has the dual task of dealing with China in Ladakh and also Pakistan in the Drass-Kargil-Batalik and the Siachen sector.
Lt. Gen. Menon, who is seen as an operations-oriented person with a thinking cap in the army circles, was commissioned in the 17th Battalion of the Sikh Regiment and is also the colonel commandant of the Regiment. A big factor that works in his favour is that he has prior experience of dealing with China in the 14 Corps and in the Eastern Command.
In 2008, he was the Colonel GS (General Staff) in the 3 Division of the Army that looks after the LAC in Ladakh, and is currently embroiled in the standoff with China. He returned to the 14 Corps in 2014 after this tenure as the Brigadier General Staff in charge of operations.
As a major general, the officer commanded the 71 Division in Eastern Tawang in the Eastern Command. Sources noted that the officer has been actively involved in the deliberations on the situation in Ladakh and the Army’s response to China.
Lt. Gen. Menon’s experience of dealing with China in the past is likely to help him make decisions faster and smoothly.
