Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday condoled the demise of General Bipin Rawat and others who lost their lives in the recent helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu stating that the death of India's first Chief of Defence Staff is a "great loss for every patriot."

The PM said that General Rawat was brave and worked hard to make the country's armed forces self-reliant. "The whole nation has been a witness to that," he said in his address at the inauguration ceremony of Saryu Nahar National Project in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur.