General VK Singh: News

General Vijay Kumar Singh is a former Indian Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and a politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As of 2021, he is a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha and the Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation and Road Transport and Highways. Son of army officer Colonel Jagat Singh, he is an alumnus of NDA and IMA, commissioned into the 2nd battalion of the Rajput Regiment (Kali Chindi) in 1970. The very next year, Singh gained his first battle experience in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. He was a part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force that entered Sri Lanka in 1987 to combat the LTTE and was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) for his services in 1990. In 2015, as MoS in the Foreign Ministry, Singh led Operation Raahat during the Yemeni crisis. He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) in 2003 and the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) in 2009 for his distinguished service. Singh became the COAS in 2010, serving till 2012, when he shifted his attention to socio-political issues affecting the country. He supported the 2012 anti-corruption movement. In 2014, he joined BJP and won the Lok Sabha elections from Ghaziabad that year and was re-elected in 2019.