'Under review for more than a year': General Naravane on memoir that kicked up a storm in Parliament

A day after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi made waves in Lok Sabha by attempting to quote a passage from Former Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane's unpublished manuscript, questions have arisen and now abound regarding this contentious book.

General Naravane served as the Chief of Army Staff from 2019-2022, he was the head of the Indian Armed Forces during the Galwan Valley standoff with China which occurred in 2020.

Yesterday, when Rahul Gandhi tried to quote from this very memoir, the top brass of the BJP party, which included leaders like Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Kiren Rijiju were up in arms and got agitated at Gandhi for attempting to bring such a topic inside the walls of the Parliament.

General Naravane's Four Stars of Destiny was supposed to go to press in April 2024 but was delayed as it was still undergoing review by the Ministry of Defence.

During a literature fest, he was asked why this very book was not cleared and published to which General Naravane replied in a jovial fashion, "Even I want to know that."

When prodded more, he simply said, "My job was to write the book and give it to the publishers. It for the publishers to get the permission from the MOD (Ministry of Defence).

"I have given it to them. It is still under review, it has been under review for more than a year now. The publishers and MOD are in constant contact with each other, So it is not for me to actually follow up."

He went on to say that ball is now in the publishers' and MOD court. "But I enjoyed writing the book for better or for worse," he added.

In February, The Caravan quoted excerpts from the unpublished manuscripts in a piece on General Naravane. Rahul Gandhi attempted to recite the same excerpts but was denied by the speaker Om Birla.

The manuscript shows the interactions General Naravane had with the Rajnath Singh and PM Modi on night of the Galwan attack.

An excerpt from the book read that Rajnath Singh had spoken to PM Modi who had said, "Jo uchit samjho, woh karo”—do whatever you deem appropriate. This was to be “purely a military decision. I had been handed
a hot potato. With this carte blanche, the onus was now totally on me."

India lost 20 soldiers during the face-off at the Line of Actual Control.