New Delhi, Feb 10 (LatestNewsX) 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General M.M. Naravane’s unpublished memoirs, Rahul Gandhi escalated his attack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.
–LatestNewsX
mr/dpb
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