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Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot will become the first union minister to be commissioned as a “regular'” officer in the Indian Territorial Army. The 34-year old Member of Parliament from Ajmer is known to have cleared all the required interviews, medical and physical tests, and the rank being accorded to him is not honorary in nature, unlike in the case of cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni and Kapil Dev. Pilot cleared the preliminary interview board four months ago at the Indian Army's Western Command headquarters at Chandimandir, after which he cleared the Service Selection Board (SSB) and the medical board at Bengaluru. He will be part of 124 TA (Sikh) Battalion, also known as the ‘Urban Concept’ battalion. The commissioning ceremony will be held at South Block, where Pilot will be ‘pipped’ as a lieutenant by Army Chief General Bikram Singh. Following the commissioning, Pilot will have to go through seven months of staggered training, which will include one month of recruit training (drills and firing), three months of in-house basic military training at Deolali in Maharashtra and three months of further training at Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. As part of Territorial Army, Pilot will have to attend 14 camp and 22 parade days every year, to be held on Saturdays and Sundays. The young MP's father, the late Rajesh Pilot, was an Indian Air Force fighter pilot before he plunged into politics, while his grandfather was a non-commissioned officer in the Army.

Sachin Pilot to be commissioned in Territorial Army