No clapping in uniform: Army chief's new rule against conduct unbecoming of hands

Taking  cue from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Tuesday directed his officers and others not to clap after his address.

“After I finish my address please do not clap. Hereafter, we will maintain the decorum of not clapping in uniform,” Gen Suhag said after a round of applause following his address at an Army event in Delhi.

The General also noticed that he had forgotten to mention it at the start of his address.

He also referred to Parrikar, who after his address at Commanders’ conference last month, had said he was under the impression that people in uniform don’t clap after an individual’s address.

However, noting that there were civilians too in the auditorium, the General in a “one-time exception to the rule”, proceeded to do what he had advised his men against. He clapped, deliberately and slowly with great showmanship, after a vote of thanks by the official of the company that had made the missile, Bharat Dynamics Ltd,  reports the Telegraph .

Army officials later told PTI that as per tradition, soldiers never clap when a senior officer addresses them. However, the Telegraph reported a colonel as saying  there is no hard-and-fast rule about clapping in the army.

“But you know this chief is austere, and a stickler for discipline; he dislikes flowers, for example, and has told his officers to abandon the practice of gifting them,” said the colonel in an interview with the Telegraph .