Fire and Fury Corps Gets New Commander Lt. Gen P.K.G. Menon; Would be Tough time for China Now.

Amid the continued tensions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, Lieutenant General P.G.K. Menon will take over as the new commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, also known as the Fire and Fury Corps, Wednesday.

He will replace Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, who completed his one-year tenure as the corps commander, and will take over as the Commandant of the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun.

Son of Subedar S.K. Menon (Retd), Lt Gen. Menon has been in Leh since the beginning of the month and also took part in the military talks held between India and China Monday.

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.

Known for carrying along his junior officers in decision-making, Lt. Gen. Menon takes command of the 14 Corps at a critical time when the winters are settling in and troops from both India and China will be positioned in the forward areas, for the first time since the 1962 War. He is said to have better situation handling skills and has not come with the “1962 war mental block” because he was born in 1964.

India and China have never deployed troops at locations that are this far forward along the LAC in winter, when the temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius, along with very strong winds.

Sources said temperatures have already started dropping down to -20 degrees Celsius at several locations in Eastern Ladakh.