In a picture that went viral on social media, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh was seen doing push-ups along with young cadets at the National Defence Academy (NDA) located in Khadakwasla of Maharashtra’s Pune. Admiral Singh was at the NDA to review the Passing Out Parade (POP) of the 140th course of the academy. The picture in which the 61-year-old admiral was seen doing the push-ups along with the cadets of the Hunter Squadron garnered widespread attention on social media. The Hunter Squadron is also the parent squadron of the admiral.
“The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Karambir Singh doing Squadron Type Push Ups at NDA. Giving serious competition to the young cadets!” the public relations officer (PRO) of the ministry of defence in Udhampur tweeted on Friday.
The public relations officer of the ministry of defence in Kohima also gave a brief account of the incident at NDA. “Admiral Karambir Singh, #CNS visited “Hunter Squadron,”National Defence Academy #NDA on 28 May 2021. Admiral said,”let’s do push-ups!” to his question of “How many?” CSM Hunter answered “As many”,” PRO Kohima tweeted on Saturday afternoon.
In the image shared widely on Twitter, some cadets of the squadron could be seen doing the push-ups with their knuckles. The admiral’s staff, NDA commandant and other officers present at the scene also joined him in the exercise, news agency PTI reported on Saturday, citing an official statement. “It was the CNS who initiated the push-ups with cadets and we all joined in,” PTI quoted NDA commandant Lt Gen Asit Mistry as saying.
On Saturday, after his review of the POP, the admiral said that the jointness of the three defence forces is more important as the nature of war is changing. “The nature of war is changing and it is important to engage in all adversaries in all domains, like land, sea, air, space and cyber. It is for this reason that the jointness amongst the three services is far more important than in the past,” Admiral Singh was quoted as saying by PTI.
He also visited the Hunter Squadron at the NDA and interacted with the young cadets and presented them a memento, PRO Kohima of the ministry of defence said on Saturday.