Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday cited a December 2023 social media post by former Indian Army chief MM Naravane announcing that his memoir was “available now”, PTI reported.
This came after the publisher of the book, Penguin Random House India, said on Monday that the memoir had not yet been published.
On Tuesday, Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament that he believes the word of the former Army chief over the publisher.
Gandhi read a December 15, 2023, post by Naravane on social media platform X, which said: “Hello friends. My book is available now. Just follow the link. Happy reading. Jai Hind.”
A screenshot shared by Naravane in the tweet showed a post by Penguin India, which had announced that readers could “pre-order” the book.
“Penguin is saying the book is not published,” PTI quoted Gandhi as saying. “The book is available on Amazon. General Naravane has tweeted, as I just read to you, that please buy my book. He tweeted this in 2023. Do you believe Penguin over Mr Naravane? I believe Mr Naravane.”
The Opposition leader said that some statements made by Naravane in the book were inconvenient to the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Responding to Gandhi’s comments on Tuesday, Penguin Random House India said that “an announced book, a book available for pre-order and a published book are not the same thing”.
In a note about its process, the publisher, which holds the rights for Naravane’s Four Stars of Destiny, said that a book being made available for pre-ordering “is a standard publishing practice” that allows readers and retailers to place advance orders. “The book is not yet published or available,” it said.
It said that a “scheduled publication date does not mean the book is planned for release” and “does not mean the book has been published”.
“A book is published only when it is available at retail channels for purchase,” it added.
Gandhi’s comments came after Penguin Random House India on Monday clarified that the book has not gone into publication, and maintained that it did not make any copies of the book public.
“Any copies of the book currently in circulation, in whole or in part, whether in print, digital, PDF, or any other format, online or offline, on any platform, constitutes an infringement of PRHI’s copyright and must immediately be ceased,” the publisher said, adding that it would take legal action against the unauthorised dissemination of the book.
In his first comments since the row erupted, Naravane quoted this statement on social media on Tuesday to say “this is the status of the book”.
The statement by the publisher on Monday came after the Delhi Police said it had filed a first information report in connection with the alleged circulation of the unpublished memoir.
The FIR followed disruptions in Parliament since February 3, with the Opposition protesting against Gandhi not being allowed to quote an excerpt from the memoir about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China.
The excerpts from the book that Gandhi had been attempting to quote from in the Lok Sabha had been reported in December 2023 and were quoted by The Caravan magazine on February 1.
BJP MPs had been objecting to the Congress MP speaking on the matter, arguing that he cannot quote from a book that had not yet been released.
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