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General Rawat’s ancestral Uttarakhand village was waiting for him to return and settle down
His uncle, Bharat Singh Rawat, who has retired from the Army said Gen Bipin Rawat was very attached to his roots in Uttarakhand and his native village in particular.
A pall of gloom has descended on Uttarakhand’s Saina village in Pauri Garhwal district, the ancestral home of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, who was killed in a chopper crash on Wednesday.
His uncle, Bharat Singh Rawat, who has retired from the Army said Gen Bipin Rawat was very attached to his roots in Uttarakhand and his native place in particular.
“It is all surreal to me. How can it happen? I was praying that he has survived and wished that he and our bahu (daughter-in-law) get well soon. He wanted to settle here and had even identified a plot of land where he wanted to build his home,” said his uncle over the phone from Pauri.
“He had come here in 2018 and told me that he wanted to build a house here. I said we have a lot of land and he can earmark a plot where wants to build his house. How could be leave us like this? He so wanted to live here again,” Singh said.
Singh recalled that General Rawat had called him about a month ago and inquired about the road connectivity to the village. The village is still a kilometre’s walk from the nearest proper road.
Ravindra Singh, Bharat Singh’s son said though the whole country is in mourning, the people in the village and surrounding areas are feeling a deep personal loss.
“Today, we have lost a son of the soil, who made this village and Uttarakhand proud with his achievements. He made us all proud by becoming India’s first chief of defence staff (CDS) in 2019 after serving the country as the army chief. His achievements were an inspiration to all of us here. Young men would look up to him and work hard to join the Indian Army. They too wanted to be like him,” he said.
People in his maternal village, Thati in Uttarkashi, said he had visited them in 2019 along with his wife. Girveer Parmar, Gen Rawat’s maternal cousin from Thati village said the news of his death had devastated people in the village. “Last time when he had come here in 2019, he had told us that after retiring he would settle in the hills of his state and work for the development of the area with the help of the government.”
Mansi Devi, gram pradhan of Birmoli, under which Saina village falls, said as the news of the chopper crash broke, shocked villagers started praying for his well-being. “We didn’t expect he will leave us suddenly like this. The news of his death is yet to sink in. The whole village and people in surrounding areas are mourning his loss and are deeply saddened. He will keep inspiring our youth who want to become like him. His legacy will keep motivating people of his ancestral place,” she said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that CDS General Bipin Rawat was brought up in a small village in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district. “On the strength of his extraordinary talent, hard work and indomitable courage and bravery, he rose to the highest post of the army and gave a new direction to the security systems of the country and the Indian Army. Uttarakhand has also suffered a great loss due to his sudden demise. We all will always be proud of this great son of ours,” he said.
