Rahul, Rajnath Clash in LS Over Gen Naravane's Unpublished Memoir
Gandhi's reply during the motion of thanks on the President's Address was interrupted by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who raised concern about the fact that the Congress MP cannot quote from an unpublished book, which he said has not been authenticated
New Delhi: Pandemonium erupted in the Lok Sabha on Monday after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi attempted to raise the sensitive issue of Sino-Indian border tensions, citing an unpublished memoir titled Four Stars of Destiny by former Army Chief Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane (Retd), who led the Indian Army during the Galwan Valley clash and the peak of the border tensions in 2020. The government resisted the move, with defence minister Rajnath Singh, home minister Amit Shah and parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju springing to their feet and questioning the “authenticity” of a book which has not yet been published. The treasury benches accused Gandhi of attempting to “mislead” the House and questioned the source of his information. Speaker Om Birla cited rules and disallowed the issue from being raised, while making it clear that Gandhi cannot quote from an unpublished text nor from any magazine that has published purported excerpts of it.
He repeatedly stated that no book or newspaper clipping can be quoted on a matter not related to the proceedings of the House, while Gandhi insisted that the document was authenticated and he could quote from it. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was next in line to speak, intervened and argued that Gandhi should be allowed to speak as China remained a critical national security concern. Gandhi persisted and asked what the ruling benches were “so afraid of” that they were preventing him from raising the issue. The House was adjourned twice after 2 pm, with breaks of an hour each as the Leader of the Opposition refused to pay heed, following which it was adjourned for the day shortly after 4 pm.
Before the House finally adjourned for the day, Gandhi spelt out the reasons why he persisted in raising the matter. “I consider the matter of national security to be of utmost importance,” he told the Chair, while alleging the issue he had raised was “uncomfortable to both the Prime Minister and the defence minister”. He said every Indian Army soldier knew what had happened on the Sino-Indian border but that the government was preventing him from speaking as it did not want the people of the country to know about the truth.
Later, Gandhi claimed to reporters in the Parliament House complex that he was not being allowed to quote from the memoir because it indicts the Prime Minister and defence minister for “letting down” the Army during the 2020 conflict with China. “Naravane ji has written about the Prime Minister and Rajnath Singh ji clearly in his book, which has appeared in an article and I am quoting from that article. They are scared because if it comes out, the reality of Narendra Modi ji and Rajnath Singh ji will be revealed. What happened to the 56-inch chest when China was before us and advancing?” Gandhi said.
Initially, Gandhi said in the House he would first like to respond to the charges made by the previous speaker, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, against the Congress on the issue of nationalism, following which the treasury benches said Surya had never questioned the patriotism of the Opposition. Mr Gandhi indicated he had not initially intended to speak on the issue of the memoirs of the former Army Chief, but decided to do so after hearing Surya’s comments against the Congress. The Lok Sabha Speaker, meanwhile, objected to references by Gandhi to the Prime Minister and defence minister, saying that if he wanted to level allegations against those in the council of ministers, Gandhi would have to first submit it to the Chair in writing.
Birla said he would not allow the Leader of the Opposition to “misuse” the floor of the House to “violate rules”. The Speaker said Gandhi was free to criticise government policies in reaction to the recent President’s address but that he would not permit Gandhi to refer to unpublished texts. “You first did not allow me to quote from the text. Then you said I cannot quote from the magazine,” Gandhi countered.
Speaking later to reporters outside the House, Rijiju alleged that Gandhi was trying to show India as “weak” and said this would affect the morale of the armed forces. Rijiju sought to remind Gandhi of the period during the late 1950s and early 1960s when thousands of kilometres of land in the Ladakh sector were lost to China during the tenure of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a reference to events that led up to India’s military defeat at the hands of China in 1962. “The Congress has to apologise to the nation” for that, Rijiju said. He further said that under Modi’s tenure, India’s territory was secure.
