Vijay Kumar Singh

Early life and education

Vijay Kumar Singh was born in Bapora village, Bhiwani district, Haryana. His father was a Colonel in the Indian Army and grandfather a Junior Commissioned Officer. Singh was educated at Birla Public School, Pilani, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. He is also an alumnus of National Defence Academy (India).

Military career

Singh was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Rajput Regiment (Kali Chindi) on 14 June 1970. He commanded the same unit when it was positioned along the Line of Control with Pakistan.

He graduated from the Defence Services Staff College. He was an honours graduate of the United States Army Infantry School, a graduate of the Rangers Course at Fort Benning and the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Singh is experienced in both counter-insurgency and high-altitude operations. He also saw action as a young Lieutenant in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 while serving as an intelligence officer of 2 Rajput. During his career he has served in various positions:

Singh became the 24th Chief of Army Staff on 31 March 2010, and was the first commando to achieve that position. Towards the end of his career there was a dispute regarding his date of birth, causing him to become the first serving officer of the Indian Army to take the government to court. As a consequence of an error made when he had enrolled with the National Defence Academy in 1965, official records mis-stated the year in which he was born. He withdrew the writ in February 2012 when, according to The Hindu, the Supreme Court of India "refused to intervene". The Court noted that there was no dispute regarding his actual date of birth and that the matter being contested was regarding how that had been recorded. It ruled that Singh had on three occasions accepted the misrecorded date.

The BBC noted in 2012 that defence experts considered a drive to modernise the Indian army had suffered from "a lack of planning and acrimony between the military and the defence ministry". This report followed an interview given by Singh in March 2012 that had caused a political row. Singh said that over a year earlier he had reported to A. K. Antony, the defence minister, that he had been offered a bribe of US$2.7 million if the army bought several hundred sub-standard vehicles. Antony issued a rebuttal to the interview, saying that he had requested at the time that Singh provide a written report regarding the incident and that this had never been submitted. Two days after the interview with Singh, correspondence between the general and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, was leaked. This criticised the standard of India's defences and caused a further political row.

Singh retired as Chief of Army Staff on 31 May 2012. He was succeeded by General Bikram Singh.

Political career

Subsequent to his retirement from the military, Singh showed support for the anti-corruption movement. He was seen on the stage in August 2012 at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, where Ramdev was fasting in protest of alleged black money and corruption. He was reported to have declared that "It is shocking but true that over two lakh farmers have committed suicide since 1995. The problems of farmers will have to take the forefront in this movement as the government has turned a blind eye to their woes." Around that time he also compared the movement, whose principal figurehead was Anna Hazare, to that of the Bihar Movement that had been led by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1975. He said that "When I evaluate the country's present condition, it is similar to that of 1975. Jayaprakash Narayan had then said Vacate the throne, common people are coming. He felt then that corruption is the root of all problems ... the situation in the country is the same today".

Singh led an agitation with Yoga Guru Ramdev on 23 December 2012, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case

Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 1 March 2014. He won the Ghaziabad (Lok Sabha constituency) seat in the 2014 Indian general election, defeating Raj Babbar of the Indian National Congress by a margin of 567,260 votes.

MoS of External Affairs and MoS (independent charge) for North East Region

In May 2014, Singh was appointed as Minister of State of External Affairs and Minister of state (independent charge) for North East Region in the NDA-led Indian Government. He was relieved of responsibility for the North East Region in November 2014, when Jitendra Singh replaced him. He has held the office of Minister of State (Independent Charge) under the Statistics and Programme Implementation portfolio in the NDA government.

Role in Operation Raahat of April 2015

Singh is praised for leading Operation Raahat, a rescue mission to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from Yemen during 2015 Yemeni Crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2015 said, “I believe this is the first time in the world that a government minister has stood on the battlefield like a soldier to do this work ... I salute General V. K. Singh.”

V. K. Singh won the following awards during his career:

During his service as the COAS, V. K. Singh was appointed Honorary Aide-De-Camp to the President of India. He was the Colonel of The Rajput Regiment to which he belonged and also Honorary Colonel of The Brigade of Guards, by virtue of being the Army Chief.

On 11 March 2011, Singh was inducted into the United States Army War College (Class of 2001 graduate) International Fellows Hall of Fame. He is the 33rd International Fellow and the first Indian Armed Forces officer to be inducted.