News Analysis India

Tag: Madhulika Rawat

  • ‘Fate brought, took them together’: CoDS General Bipin Rawat’s brother-in-law on sister’s marriage

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: As the nation bid the final farewell to armed forces power couple — Gen Bipin Rawat and Madhulika Rawat — her brother on Friday emotionally recalled the events that led to their matrimonial alliance 35 years ago.

    Yash Vardhan Singh, brother-in-law of Gen Rawat, said that fate had brought them together and fate took them away both at the same time. “It was actually his father (Laxman Singh Rawat), who was also an army officer, who had sought the hand of my sister for his son (Bipin Rawat). He wrote to my father late Mrigendra Singh and that’s how the marriage talks began,” he said.

    Yash Vardhan Singh’s ancestral family hails from Sohagpur in Shahdol district in Madhya Pradesh. “Our ‘nanaji’ lived in Lucknow and that is where my sister was born in 1960s. Incidentally, the address of her place of birth was ’25, Ashoka Marg’ and she got married in Delhi at ’25 Ashoka Road’. Isn’t it a pleasant coincidence,” he told PTI.

    Singh, born in 1966, along with his daughter, Bandhvi Singh, a national-level shooting player, were present at the official residence of the Chief of Defence Staff in Delhi where mortal remains of Gen Rawat and Madhulika Rawat were kept for people to pay their respects.

    ALSO READ| Process underway for identification of bodies of 10 deceased armed forces personnel

    Their cremation took place took place at Brar Square crematorium in Delhi Cantonment, two days after they were killed with 11 others, all from the armed forces, in a helicopter crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

    Madhulika Rawat’s younger brother recalled the marriage that had taken place 35 years ago. “The year was 1986. And, Gen Rawat then held the rank of a Captain, and was posted in Dehradun. Such fond memories, and now cruel fate has snatched my sister, and my brother-in-law from us,” Yash Vardhan Singh said.

    Bandhvi, a history graduate from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, said she reached Delhi late last night to be with the family. “I somehow completed my rifle shooting competition in Bhopal. Images of ‘phua-phupha’ (Gen Rawat and Madhulika Rawat) were flashing in my head. But, my ‘phuphaji’ (Gen Rawat) had always inspired me to be a fighter,” she told PTI.

    Bandhvi, who will turn 21 on December 18, recalled the time she had spent with him a few months ago at Gen Rawat’s official bungalow. “I had returned from Peru after taking part in world shooting championship. And, it was Dussehra time. And, ‘phuphaji’ (Gen Rawat) took me to the Dusshera festivities as observed by Gorkha Regiment soldiers. And, as I shoot rifle as a sport, he wanted me to get blessings of the Goddess. All of these memoies, I will cherish now,” she recalled.

    ALSO READ| Tribute posters put in streets near CoDS General Bipin Rawat’s residence

    An alumnus of St Edward School, Shimla, and the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, he was commissioned into the 11th Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in December 1978.

    Recalling, Gen Rawat’s personality, Bandhvi said, “He spoke, not much, among us, but through his gestures taught us a lot”. Gen. Rawat assumed charge as Chief of Army Staff in December 2016. And, was appointed the first CDS on December 31, 2019.

  • Coonoor air mishap: Tribute posters put in streets near CoDS General Bipin Rawat’s residence

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Several posters paying homage to Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat were on Friday put up in streets near his official residence in Delhi. The huge posters, only carrying images of the couple and slogan ‘amar rahe’ (long live) were hung from poles and trees at a roundabout on Kamraj Marg and other streets in Lutyens’ Delhi.

    The official residence of the CDS is at 3, Kamraj Marg, where the mortal remains of Gen Rawat and his wife, were kept on Friday for people to pay their final respects. Their cremation later took place at Brar Square crematorium in Delhi Cantonment, two days after they were killed with 11 others, all from the armed forces, in a helicopter crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

    In the morning, ambassadors, military attaches of several foreign countries also visited to pay homage to Gen Rawat and his wife.

    Earlier in the day, right outside his official residence at 3, several people who had gathered and raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘General Rawat amar rahe’, and ‘Uttarakhand ka heera amar rahe’, while a stream of dignitaries paid floral tributes and last respects till the funeral procession left the bungalow.

    A Hindu outfit had put up a series of posters in a row, bearing an image of Gen Rawat, on a pavement near the main entrance of the official bungalow. Garlands were put up on these posters.

  • Chopper crash: Madhya Pradesh loses daughter Madhulika and son-in-law General Bipin Rawat

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: The country’s highest ranked military officer Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat had an inseparable bond with Madhya Pradesh.

    General Rawat’s better half Madhulika Rawat, who died with her husband in Wednesday’s helicopter crash, hailed from the erstwhile royal family of Sohagpur Riyasat in Shahdol district of MP. They were married in 1985.

    Madhulika’s father Kunwar Mrigendra Singh was not only the Riyasatdar of Sohagpur Riyasat in Shadol district, but was also the Congress MLA from the district in 1967 and 1972.

    ALSO READ: Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, 12 others confirmed dead in TN chopper crash

    General Rawat’s brother-in-law Yashvardhan Singh was in Bhopal with his shooter daughter, who was featuring in a national level shooting competition, when he got a call from the Army, asking him to reach Delhi urgently.

    “I haven’t got authentic info about the tragic helicopter crash as even General Rawat’s ADC was in the same copter, but the Army has asked us to reach Delhi urgently. The signals suggest that something very serious has happened. I and my wife are flying to Delhi from Bhopal, while my mother will be reaching Jabalpur from Shahdol to fly to Delhi,” Singh said before the news was confirmed.

    Singh recounted that recently his family in Shahdol had talked to General Rawat and wife Madhulika over the phone and the couple had promised to visit there in the new year. Madhulika, who was an alumnus of Gwalior’s prestigious Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, had last visited Sohagpur in 2012.