``... President of India (Zail Singh) felt that if he was to dismiss the Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi), Gen K Sundarji could have masterminded an event where the armed forces of India could be involved,'' writes Lt Gen (Retd) Prem Nath Hoon, formerly GOC-in-C of Western Command, referring to the face-off between country's top executives in mid-eighties.

Hoon's book, `Unmasking Secrets Of Turbulence - Midnight Freedom To A Nuclear Dawn' throws light on behind-the-scenes political and military controversies raging in late eighties. He says a veteran Congressman and one-time close aide of Gandhi family, V C Shukla, who was involved in moves to unseat Rajiv Gandhi, had dashed to Western Army headquarter to gauge ``Army's attitude'' if Zail Singh dismissed Rajiv Gandhi. ``Whilethe dismissal never took place, two things struck me. One was that when Giani Zail Singh was asked why he chose not to dismiss Rajiv Gandhi he stated that if he chose a successor, he might turn out to be a weak person,'' which could threaten transition of power from a democratically elected Government to the Army, Hoon writes.

Maintaining that while he wondered about Army Chief Gen Sundarji's attitude to the move, Hoon says, ``it was amazing'' when he received a letter from Army headquarter stating that three crack para commando batallions, one each from Western, Eastern and Southern commands, be taken away and ``placed directly'' under the then Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen S F Rodrigues, ``a close confidante of Sundarji.'' Lt Gen Hoon claimed he was so much perturbed by those developments that he even ``advised'' premier Rajiv Gandhi to remove Rodrigues as Vice-Chief to a command where he ``would not have troops or a say.'' Substantiating his apprehensions, Hoon argues that Rodrigues later as Chief ofthe Army had himself given vent to these fears by stating in a newspaper interview that ``good governance is our business as well.''

Wondering what really Rodrigues meant by this, the former Director General of Military Operations asks, ``Was he (Rodrigues then Army Chief) challenging the Government?'' Hoon claims that even the present Defence Minister George Fernandes, then an MP, shared such apprehensions when he said that ``the Army and the General is taking responsibility of governance of the country. Therefore, we urge that he should immediately be relieved of his duties.''

Hoon also blames the former Chief of Army for what he called a flawed `Operation Bluestar,' describing the military operation in Golden Temple as ``ill planned and ill conceived.'' ``The biggest mistake made by Lt Gen Sundarji and Maj Gen Brar was that they held daily media briefings as if it was a war,'' Hoon says. ``I think the mutiny (of Sikhs deserting Army) was due to this media briefing.' ``The operation was planned in ahurry. But why did Lt Gen Sundarji agree to go ahead? I say, over-enthusiasm and personal ambitions were what got him to take that decision.''

He goes on, ``Gen Vaidya was assassinated later for something he was not entirely responsible for and I feel that Indira Gandhi was killed because of the failure on the part of the Generals who harboured personal ambitions.'' He claims that a senior army officer confided that ``if Indira Gandhi would not have been assassinated then Sundarji surely would never have become the Chief.''