Naravane’s book ‘Four Stars of Destiny’, which Rahul Gandhi cited in parliament, goes missing on Amazon, Flipkart

A book written by former Indian Army Chief Gen (retd) MM Naravane, which Rahul Gandhi cited in Parliament to criticise the government over the 2020 India-China Ladakh standoff, was not accessible on leading online stores on Wednesday (Feb 4). Searches on Amazon, Flipkart, and Penguin Random House India’s official website showed the title was either missing or marked unavailable. This came just hours after the Leader of the Opposition displayed the book in the Lok Sabha and read out excerpts from it.

During the discussion, Rahul Gandhi referred to the book to argue that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not assume accountability during the military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh. He claimed the book is published overseas and alleged that its release in India was being blocked by the government. "The book is available abroad, it's published abroad. The government is not allowing it to be published here," the Congress party leader said.

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Holding up a copy of the book in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi said both the Speaker of the House and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier said that such a book did not exist. He said that Naravane’s account details the Ladakh crisis and suggested that the prime minister left key decisions to the Army Chief, allegedly telling him to act as he deemed fit. “This is Naravane ji’s book, in which he has written the account of Ladakh. Narendra Modi ji did not fulfil his responsibility. He told the Army chief to do whatever he felt was appropriate,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Gandhi further quoted passages in which the former Army chief reportedly wrote that he felt isolated while handling the situation during the India–China standoff.