The Lok Sabha witnessed acrimonious exchanges as we speak (2 February) as excerpts from former Military Chief Basic Manoj Mukund Naravane’s unpublished memoir 4 Stars of Future grew to become the flashpoint of a heated debate over the 2020 japanese Ladakh standoff.
The Movement of Thanks debate, usually a proper affair, was a battleground over nationwide safety narratives, procedural propriety, and competing accounts of an evening when Indian and Chinese language forces got here perilously near armed battle.
Chief of Opposition Rahul Gandhi introduced the memoir into parliamentary discourse, citing passages printed in The Caravan journal’s February 2026 difficulty.
Gandhi used the excerpts to accuse the Prime Minister of being unable to present clear and immediate orders throughout a important confrontation. He alleged that the federal government was intentionally blocking the e book’s launch, which has reportedly been pending Ministry of Defence clearance for over a yr, to stop uncomfortable particulars about disaster administration from coming into public area.
The Treasury benches objected sharply. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh questioned the authenticity and appropriateness of citing unpublished materials in Home proceedings. The Speaker upheld these objections to Gandhi’s remarks.
What the Memoir Says
The controversy centres on occasions described within the excerpts from the night time of 31 August 2020. Earlier that day, Indian forces had executed a daring operation, occupying key heights on the Kailash Vary south of Pangong Tso. These positions commanded PLA deployments beneath and altered the tactical equation after months of impasse following the June 2020 Galwan conflict that killed 20 Indian dozens of Chinese language troopers.
In keeping with the account, Chinese language tanks and infantry responded by advancing towards Rechin La, closing to inside just a few hundred metres of Indian positions.
Basic Naravane, then Military Chief, sought steerage from the apex management, together with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Nationwide Safety Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Employees Basic Bipin Rawat, and Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The query was direct: what had been his orders if the PLA continued its advance?
Based mostly on a studying of the report through which the excerpts have appeared, Naravane seems to recommend {that a} resolution on what ought to be executed didn’t come promptly or decisively. The response that finally arrived via Rajnath Singh, attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was to do no matter he deemed acceptable.
Naravane interpreted this as delegation of operational authority to the army chain of command. He ordered Indian tanks ahead with weapons educated on PLA positions. The Chinese language forces halted. No pictures had been fired, and the speedy disaster handed.
Congress has seized on the account to accuse the Prime Minister and authorities of indecision at a second of acute nationwide safety concern.
Social gathering leaders argued that when tanks of two nuclear-armed nations stood inside direct firing vary, the political management ought to have supplied unambiguous path slightly than leaving the Military Chief to find out acceptable motion on his personal.
The Authorities’s Response
The federal government and its supporters have pushed again on a number of fronts.
The central argument is that the Prime Minister doesn’t make tactical battlefield selections and that tactical manoeuvres are the area of army commanders who’ve eyes on the state of affairs. Political management units broad strategic parameters and aims whereas giving the armed forces operational freedom to execute.
The federal government has argued that the message to do what Naravane deemed acceptable, on this framing, was not indecision however exactly the form of delegation that enables commanders to reply to fast-moving conditions with out ready for path from Delhi.
Considerably, even Naravane’s account notes that he acquired this authorisation and acted on it efficiently. The PLA halted, no pictures had been fired, and Indian positions had been preserved, he wrote. The restraint proven on each side averted escalation whereas sustaining the tactical benefit India had seized that morning.
The BJP has additionally introduced a distinct perspective on the broader operation, written by Lt Gen YK Joshi, who was the Northern Command chief on the time and later wrote about it in his e book Who Dares Wins: A Soldier’s Memoir.
“The actions by the PLA in japanese Ladakh in 2020 had big ramifications on India–China relations. The occasions as they panned out over the subsequent two years had been extraordinarily difficult and needed to be dealt with very deftly. The PLA got here in massive energy at Galwan. Over the subsequent few days, we noticed transgressions within the space of North Financial institution of Pangong Tso and some days later within the space of Tsogtsalu/Hotsprings. We dealt with them nicely,” Joshi writes.
“On 15 June, the Galwan incident occurred. After due planning and preparation, we launched the quid professional quo operations within the space of R2 complicated (Rezang La–Rechin La) on the Kailash Ranges, on the North and South Financial institution of Pangong Tso and even additional north within the space of Kiu La and Ane La passes. We fully took the PLA abruptly, introduced them again to the negotiation desk and compelled them to beat a hasty retreat. This was Operation Snow Leopard,” he provides.
Joshi’s account emphasises deliberate planning, profitable shock, and forcing the PLA into retreat, a story of initiative and execution slightly than reactive disaster administration.
The total contents of 4 Stars of Future stay unavailable pending MoD clearance.
