Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement has come out for the first time after the controversy over the book of former Army Chief General MM Naravane. He said that there will be no ban on former army chiefs writing books. The Defense Minister also termed as completely wrong the news in which it was said that officers associated with the Army will not be allowed to write any book till 20 years after retirement.
Uproar in Parliament over General Naravane’s book
Recently, during the budget session of Parliament, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had questioned the government regarding permission to publish General Naravane’s book. After this, there was a huge controversy in the Parliament and there was a lot of difficulty in running the session. During the Galwan Valley clash with China and the border dispute in the year 2020, General MN Naravane (now retired) was the Army Chief of the country (March 2020-April 2022). In October 2023, General Naravane told news agency PTI in an interview that he had written his autobiography, For Stars of Destiny. PTI also published some excerpts from this book.
What is in General Naravane’s book?
In the book, General Naravane had made public the complete information about the Galwan Valley clash (15-16 May 2020) to the disengagement with China i.e. the agreement to settle the border dispute. He has written in his book about a series of phone conversations and meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. There is also mention of the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and China Study Group (CSG) in that book.
Defense Ministry summoned the publishing house
The former Army Chief has also written in the book the conversations he had with his subordinate commanders and the orders (guidelines) given to them. Just because of all these things, the government (Defence Ministry) summoned the complete draft of the book from the publishing house that published the book, instead of General Naravane directly. The book, which was to be published in April 2024, has not received the green signal till date. According to sources, General Naravane’s book has been stopped under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Army Act, because releasing the book could make sensitive information related to the army public.
