Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Monday after Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to quote from the unpublished memoir of former Army chief General M M Naravane, with the government saying it is against parliamentary rules.
The book was slated to hit the stands in January 2024, but The Indian Express reported at the time that it was under review by the Indian Army and that its publisher, Penguin Random House, had been asked not to share excerpts or soft copies of the book until the review was over. The Ministry of Defence was also said to be involved in the exercise “at some level”.
The vetting has been underway since then, and there has been no official word from the publisher, the author, or the MoD on the status of the book. The Indian Express reached out to Penguin Random House publisher Milee Ashwarya and Gen Naravane, but did not receive a response.
What happened on August 31, 2020
In December 2023, news agency PTI published extracts from the memoir, with one report quoting General Naravane’s communications with Defence Minister Singh on August 31, 2020.
General Naravane first received a call from Northern Command chief, Lt Gen Y K Joshi. “At 2015 hours on the evening of 31 August, Jo (Lt Gen Joshi) rang me up, quite worried. He reported that four tanks supported by infantry had slowly started moving up the track towards Rechin La … They had fired an illuminating round but this had had no effect. I had clear orders not to open fire, ’till cleared from the very top’,” he writes.
Gen Naravane says he then called up the Defence Minister, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. “To each and every one my question was, ‘What are my orders?’ At 2110 hours, Northern Command again rang up, the tanks had continued moving ahead and were now less than a km from the top.”
“I rang up the RM again at 2125 hours, with the latest and once more asked for clear directions. The situation was tense. Telephone lines were buzzing,” Gen Naravane writes.
There was an exchange of hotline messages and the PLA commander, Major General Liu Lin, suggested that both sides should stop any further moves and the two local commanders should meet at the pass at 9.30 am the following morning. Gen Naravane says he called up the Defence Minister and NSA Doval at 10 pm to convey this information.
“I had hardly put the phone down when Jo rang up once again at 2210 hours. He said that the tanks had started moving up again and were now only about 500 metres away,” Gen Naravane writes.
“I conveyed the criticality of the situation to the RM (Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh), who said he would get back to me, which he did, by about 2230 hours.”
“He said that he had spoken to the PM and that it was purely a military decision. ‘Jo ucchit samjho woh karo’ (Do whatever you deem is appropriate). I had been handed a hot potato. With this carte blanche, the onus was now totally on me. I took a deep breath and sat silently for a few minutes. All was quiet save for the ticking of the wall clock.”
The military standoff between India and China began in April 2020 and continued till October 2024, when both countries mutually agreed to disengage from legacy friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, following multiple rounds of military and diplomatic-level talks. Before October 2024, the disengagement of troops was carried out at certain patrolling points. However, an overall de-escalation of troops has yet to take place in eastern Ladakh.
Rules on publishing books
Gen Naravane had earlier told The Indian Express: “I have enjoyed writing this book and that is what matters. The satisfaction has come from writing it.”
After a session at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival in Kasauli in October 2025, he said his job was to write the book and submit it to the publisher. It was the publisher who was to get the permission from the MoD. “They gave it (the book) to them. It is under review,” he said.
Gen Naravane also added that the publisher and the MoD were in constant touch. “So it is not for me to follow up. The ball is in the publisher’s and the MoD’s court. But I enjoyed writing the book, for better or for worse. And that’s that. It is for the MoD to give permission as and when they deem fit,” he said.
At present, serving officers of the Armed Forces and bureaucrats are governed by specific rules for publishing a book. However, for retired officers, the matter falls into a grey area.
Section 21 of The Army Rules, 1954, states that no person under the Act shall publish in any form whatever or communicate directly or indirectly to the press any matter in relation to a political question or on a service subject or containing any service information, “or publish or cause to be published any book or letter or article or other document on such question or matter or containing such information without the prior sanction of the Central Government,” or any officer specified by the Central Government in this regard.
Gen Naravane’s memoir: Army reviews former Chief’s book on Ladakh standoff details
But these may not apply to an Armed Forces personnel writing a book unrelated to his work and/or of literary or artistic nature.
While there are no specific rules for retired Army officers, a defence source cited the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, which were amended in June 2021 by the Department of Personnel and Training. The amended rules barred retired government servants who have served in intelligence or security-related organisations from publishing any information related to the organisation after retirement without prior permission.
While the three services are not covered under these rules, retired Armed Forces personnel should also adhere to such expectations, defence sources said. Sources had earlier said a top services officer is privy to a lot of confidential information, and so, if they are documenting it in a book or article, it might need prior government sanction.
Gen Naravane was the army chief during the 2020 India-China clash in Galwan. 
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