The Lok Sabha was adjourned after an uproar erupted when Rahul Gandhi attempted to quote from former Army chief M M Naravane’s memoir on the 2020 India-China conflict, drawing strong objections from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi speaks in the House on Monday. Pics/PTI
A row erupted in Lok Sabha on Monday when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sought to quote from a “memoir” of former Army chief M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict but faced strong opposition from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other BJP members who accused the Congress leader of misleading the House, leading to uproar and adjournment of proceedings for the day.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla disallowed Gandhi from raising the issue, but he did not relent and several Opposition leaders also rallied behind him. The House was adjourned twice and later for the day.
Earlier, as Gandhi rose to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address, he said he would first like to respond to the charges made by the previous speaker, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, against the Congress on nationalism and began quoting from what he stated was the “memoir” of Gen. Naravane talking about the India-China conflict of 2020.
However, Defence Minister Singh strongly protested this and asked Gandhi to clarify whether the book had been published or not. The uproar went on for about 50 minutes with Speaker Om Birla repeatedly stating that no book or newspaper clipping can be quoted on a matter not related to the proceedings of the House, and Gandhi insisting that the document was authenticated and he could quote from it.
Government sources said Gandhi was reading “concocted things” on China. They said there was ample material in the public domain on the decisions taken by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on China, and alleged that he “surrendered thousands of acres of land just to further his own statesmanship.”
Who is ex-Army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane?
General Manoj Mukund Naravane is a former Chief of the Indian Army who served as the 27th Chief of Army Staff from December 31, 2019, to April 30, 2022. Born on April 22, 1960, in Pune, he is the son of a former Indian Air Force officer. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, Naravane holds an MPhil in defence studies.
Commissioned into the 7th Battalion of the Sikh Light Infantry in 1980, he commanded key formations including Rashtriya Rifles units in Jammu and Kashmir, an infantry brigade, and the Assam Rifles. He led the Army during critical periods, including the Galwan standoff with China, and also served briefly as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee before retirement.
Govt heckled Rahul to gag truth: Cong
The Congress on Monday alleged that the Modi government “heckled” Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to stop him from speaking in the Lok Sabha on the India-China border conflict of 2020 from former Army chief Manoj Naravane’s “memoir” as it was afraid that the “truth of its incompetence” would be exposed.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said that the government had deployed senior-most Cabinet ministers and “misused” rules to “silence” Gandhi in the House. “This faux nationalist government is so afraid of the truth of their incompetence coming out that they have deployed a bunch of seniormost Cabinet Ministers to prevent LOP Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji from speaking.
“They moved heaven and earth to stall the publishing of Ex Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane ji’s book - and now when excerpts are coming out which expose their so-called nationalist commitments, they are heckling and silencing the Leader of Opposition,” the Congress leader said in a post on X.
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