Former army chief Gen VK Singh, on Thursday claimed that the army was not in favour of flushing out militants from the Golden Temple in the 1984 Operation Bluestar.
“The army had said no,” said Singh who was then a Major. “The then army chief (late Gen AS Vaidya) had vehemently said ‘no’ to initiating action against people belonging to the nation, but he had to carry out the orders of his political bosses”.
Singh was in Amritsar for a meeting prior to his march under the banner of Jan Loktantra Morcha on March 31.
On the Naxal problem, Singh said, the possibility of involving the army was discussed when he was the chief. “But, ultimately we felt it was a socio-economic problem.” But Singh made it clear that the forces had a definite role in J&K, which was “facing a proxy war”.