‘Why am I being stopped?’: Rahul Gandhi on quoting former Army chief’s memoir on 2020 China crisis

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked why he was being stopped from discussing an excerpt from former Indian Army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane’s unpublished memoir, saying that the matter related to national security.

Gandhi’s remarks on Tuesday came during a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address. The excerpt published in The Caravan magazine on Saturday is about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China.

The leader of the Opposition said in the House that national security was a “very important matter” in the President’s speech.

The Congress leader added that India’s relations with China and Pakistan were an important point and that there was a national security matter in the magazine article that he was authenticating in the House. “It [the article] speaks about the reaction of the prime minister...” he said.

To authenticate a document, a member must submit a signed copy affirming its correctness to the best of their knowledge.

Krishna Prasad Tenneti, a member of the Lok Sabha chairpersons’ panel overseeing the proceedings in the House at the time, asked Gandhi to table the document and said it would be examined.

Gandhi was asked to speak only about the president’s address.

Accusing Gandhi of misleading the Lok Sabha, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Congress leader cannot again quote the excerpts that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had refused to allow on Monday.

A day prior, Birla, citing rules, had said that no book or newspaper clipping could be quoted on a matter not related to the proceedings of the House.

MPs from the Bharatiya Janata Party have been objecting to Gandhi speaking on the matter, arguing that he was quoting from a book that has not yet been released.

On Tuesday, Gandhi said that he was willing to not quote the magazine article directly but added that he should be allowed to speak about its contents.

Tenneti said that the Lok Sabha speaker had already ruled on the matter.

Gandhi responded that the president’s address was “about the path India has to chart…”

“Today, on the world stage, the main issue in international affairs is the conflict between China and the [United States],” the Rae Bareli MP said. “This is central to our President’s address. This is central to our Budget.”

He added: “All I am saying is let me make a statement about what happened between China and India and how our prime minister reacted to it. Why am I being stopped?”

Eventually, Tenneti called other members to speak before Gandhi had completed his speech, prompting Opposition MPs to protest by tearing up papers and throwing them towards the speaker’s chair. Following this, Rijiju moved a resolution to suspend eight Opposition MPs for the remainder of the session, which was adopted by the House.

Those suspended are Congress MPs Hibi Eden, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy, Prashant Padole, S Venkataraman and Dean Kuriakose.

The House was adjourned for the day amid a ruckus.

On Monday, when Gandhi first quoted the excerpt, he was interrupted by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who accused the Congress leader of misleading the House.

The Lok Sabha had been adjourned for the day amid the ruckus that followed.

In his memoir Four Stars of Destiny, Naravane wrote that on August 31, 2020, he had sought “clear direction” from India’s political and military leadership for the Army to respond to Chinese tanks moving towards Rechin La in eastern Ladakh.

Naravane said that hours after first seeking orders, he had been told by Singh that he had spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that the military was to do whatever its deem appropriate.

This implied that the Indian response was to be “purely a military decision” and that “the onus was now totally on [him]”, the former Army chief wrote.

The incident Naravane referred to had taken place amid the border tensions between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

The excerpts from the memoir had been reported in December 2023 and were quoted by The Caravan magazine on Saturday.

The book was to be published in April 2024, but has not been released yet. In October, Naravane had said that the publisher was waiting for the Union government’s approval.

On Monday, Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament that “the leader of the country is supposed to give direction”.

“The leader of the country is not supposed to run away from decisions and leave decisions to other people’s shoulders,” ANI had quoted Gandhi as saying. “That is what the prime minister has done.”

The Union government has not commented on the contents of Naravane’s memoir.

However, on Monday, the defence minister said in Parliament that the book would have been published if its contents were accurate, adding that Naravane could challenge it in court if he thinks that his memoir has been unjustly barred from being released.