‘Does govt believe Penguin over Naravane?’ Rahul Gandhi’s fresh salvo over memoir row
New Delhi: Amid the Parliament stalemate over former Army chief General M.M. Naravane’s unpublished memoirs, Rahul Gandhi escalated his attack on the government and Penguin, the book’s publisher, claiming the memoirs are in the public domain and accusing the BJP of trying to brush it under the carpet to prevent the “inconvenient truth” from spiralling out.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, speaking to the media, after the adjournment of the House on Tuesday, alleged that the book was available on e-commerce platform Amazon – a claim outrightly denied by Penguin.
He also showed reporters an X post by a former Army chief from 2023, where he urged the people to read memoirs detailing what happened at the Galwan clashes in 2020.
“Naravane tweeted in 2023. Just follow the link – happy reading, Jai Hind. Either Penguin or the former Army chief is lying; both cannot be right,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters.
For more than a week now, the Lok Sabha has witnessed repeated disruptions over General Naravane’s book, with the opposition adamant on raising the “revelations” and the government firm on blocking it. The issue snowballed further with Gandhi waving a copy of the book outside the House on Monday, sparking fresh tensions and bitter confrontation between the government and the opposition.
Further, upping the ante, the LoP said that he firmly stood with the former Army Chief and questioned the government’s priorities.
“I believe Naravane ji and not Penguin. Would you believe Naravane over Penguin?” he said.
He stated the book contained scores of uncomfortable truths which would leave the government embarrassed, and, hence, it was blocking the opposition from unravelling the truth of the Galwan stand-off in the House.
Meanwhile, Penguin, responding to the raging row, has stated that no copies of the book “in print or digital form have been published, distributed, sold, or otherwise made available to the public”.
“Penguin Random House India would like to clarify that we hold the sole publishing rights for the book ‘Four Stars of Destiny’, a memoir by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, former Chief of the Indian Army. We wish to make it clear that the book has not gone into publication,” it said in an official statement.