Arun Shridhar Vaidya

General Arunkumar Shridhar Vaidya PVSM, MVC & Bar, AVSM, ADC (27 July 1926 – 10 August 1986) was a General Officer in the Indian Army.

Vaidya was born in Bombay on 27 July 1926 to a Marathi Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) family, the son of Shridhar Balkrishna Vaidya CIE, a barrister and sometime district collector of Surat, and his wife Indira.

After his early education at Pune, Vaidya studied at Elphinstone High School in Bombay before joining Elphinstone College and later the M. T. B. Arts College at Surat, presumably transferring due to his father's posting there as district collector.

At Elphinstone College, Vaidya joined the 1st Bombay Battalion of the University Training Corps (UTC) and was awarded Best Cadet in 1942 before transferring to the MTB College, where he also joined its UTC and attained the rank of Company Quarter-Master Havildar (CQMH).

On 30 March 1944, he joined the Officers' Training School at Belgaum as a cadet.

He was selected for the Armoured Corps and underwent further training at Ahmednagar, receiving an emergency commission in the Royal Deccan Horse (later the 9th Deccan Horse) of the British Indian Army on 20 January 1945.

Vaidya received an emergency commission in the Indian Armoured Corps on 20 October 1945, with the service number IEC-11597, and received a regular army commission as a lieutenant on 7 May 1947 (seniority from 20 April 1947), a few months before India's independence.

In September 1948, Vaidya was involved in Operation Polo as a member of the ad hoc armoured force organised from the Armoured Corps Centre and School.

The force captured the Daulatabad Fort, the Ellora Caves area and Parbhani.

In 1958, he was selected to attend the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, having secured a competitive vacancy.

He was subsequently appointed brigade major of the 70 Infantry Brigade.

He served in this appointment in Ladakh during the Sino-Indian War in 1962.

Vaidya was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 10 June 1965, shortly before war broke out between India and Pakistan that year.

He was in command of the Deccan Horse.

During the time, he was instrumental in saving the Command Trucks and fleeing Divisional Headquarters through his tanks through an encirclement by Pakistan Army's 6th Armoured Division at the Battle of Chawinda which resulted in destruction of Pakistan's 1st Armoured Division and heavy loss of Pakistani lives.

70 tanks were destroyed of which 38 tanks were decimated by the Deccan Horse.

The regiment won 22 gallantry awards and Vaidya as the Commandant was awarded India's second highest military decoration, the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC).

He was awarded the MVC in an investiture ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on 21 April 1966.

The citation for the Maha Vir Chakra reads as follows:

On 21 July 1969, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and appointed Commander of 167 Mountain Brigade.

Under him, the brigade conducted operations against the Naga hostiles who were backed by China.

Along with the leader, Mowu Angami, most of the hostiles were captured with their weapons and equipment.

Vaidya was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 January 1970.

On 2 November 1970, he was appointed Commandant of the Armoured Corps Centre and School at Ahmednagar.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Vaidya was in command of an armored brigade in the Zafarwal sector on the western front.

In the Battle of Chakra and Dahira, the hostile terrain was combined with minefields.

He crossed through the minefield and moved forward.

Thus the entire squadron was able to push through the lane and quickly deploy itself to meet the Pakistan Army's counter-attacks.

During the Battle of Basantar (known as Battle of Barapind in Pakistan) in the same conflict, he displayed skill and leadership in getting his tanks through deep minefields.

For this he was awarded a second Maha Vir Chakra (known as the Bar to MVC).

The citation for the bar to the Maha Vir Chakra reads as follows:

On 4 January 1973, Vaidya was promoted to the acting rank of major-general and appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) the elite 1st Armoured Division.

He was confirmed in the substantive rank of major-general on 1 April 1974.

He subsequently moved to Army Headquarters as Director Military Operations (DMO).

After a stint as DMO, he took over as the Master General of Ordnance at Army HQ.

Vaidya was promoted to lieutenant-general on 25 January 1980, with seniority from 16 August 1978.

He served as the 13th Chief of the Army Staff from 1983 to 1986.

Following his retirement, he was assassinated by Khalistani militants Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha in August 1986, for his role in Operation Blue Star of 1983.

Vaidya fought in the Burma Campaign with the 14th Army during the final months of the Second World War, including at the battles of Meiktila and Rangoon.

His wife's name was Bhanu and they had three daughters.