Ex-Army Chief Gen Naravane’s Memoirs Delayed: Amazon Cancels January Orders, Not Before May

New Delhi: Amazon India has cancelled the orders for former Chief of Army Staff, General M.M. Naravane’s yet to be released memoir titled Four Stars of Destiny, earlier to be released on January 15 (which is Army Day). Naravane's book is now showing around April 30 as its date of delivery.

The book is “awaiting clearance” from the Union ministry of defence and the Union ministry of external affairs, The Wire has learnt.

The upcoming memoir, which contains a series of revelations, including the former Army Chief detailing how he was handed a “hot potato” in dealing with Chinese troop movement in August 2020, and how the Agnipath tour of duty scheme caught the armed forces by surprise and was a “bolt out of the blue”, was earlier slated to be released last month.

The current Chief of Army Staff, Manoj Pande, at his press conference this week, betrayed the unease within the establishment about Agniveer, when he refused to comment on his predecessor’s remarks on the controversial four-year scheme.

The Hindu reported him as saying, “It would be unfair for me to say anything on that,” General Pande said, when asked about General Naravane’s observations, adding, “From here on, we need to move forward.”

He spoke on the scheme, saying, “As I said, the acceptability, the positivity and integration of the Agniveers in the units is happening well. There are few challenges in terms of training, most of which are at the tactical level which entail tweaking of our policies, limited training period, harmonising firing standards between Agniveers and regular soldiers.”

But Agniveer has resulted in a debate within the armed forces and was not something that the former Chief of Defence Staff, Late General Rawat, also supported. There was talk of the armed forces insisting on 50% of Agniveer recruits being absorbed as permanent last year, but analysts say, the political establishment did not finally come around to it, as it would have meant a significant walk back from the announcement.

News stories based on excerpts of the book were also published by news agency PTI in December in the form of five news stories.

Also read: Agnipath Scheme Was ‘Bolt Out of the Blue’ for Navy and Air Force: Former Army Chief Naravane

Sources told The Wire that chapters of the book are being reviewed by the Ministry of External Affairs while some chapters are being reviewed by the defence ministry.

According to the excerpts published by PTI, Naravane wrote that when he was first informed about the Tour of Duty scheme, "it was more on the lines of a short-service option at the soldier level."

“However, the prime minister’s office (PMO) was considering this proposal, but with a much wider scope and applicability. In the PMO formulation, not only should the complete intake of the year be short-service based, but it would also apply to all three services,” he writes.

“Having become a tri-service matter, it now fell on the CDS, General Bipin Rawat, to take the proposal forward, albeit with the Army remaining the lead service.”

“We, in the Army, were taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue.”

The Wire has learnt that the portions relating to the revelations about the Agnipath scheme are being reviewed by the defence ministry.

Following the release of the excerpts on the Agniveer scheme, the Congress in a statement accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of “bulldozing” the scheme. The statement said that General Naravane’s memoirs “confirmed what had been commonly believed when the Agnipath/Agniveer scheme was bulldozed through without meaningful consultations with those who were being directly impacted by such a disastrous policy.”

The other revelations in the upcoming book, according to the excerpts published by PTI, include Naravane narrating about the night of August 31, 2020, following a tense situation arising out of Chinese PLA moving tanks and troops in Rechin La mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

“I conveyed the criticality of the situation to the RM (Raksha Mantri), who said he would get back to me, which he did, by about 2230 hours,” PTI quoted him from the memoirs.

“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 was 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.”

Earlier this month, the author, General Naravane, when asked about the final release date for the book, told The Wire that we should “check with publishers”.

"We carefully review all our books to ensure quality content and this process may impact publishing timelines based on the necessary work involved. As part of this editorial process, we are scheduled to publish General M.M. Naravane’s book in 2024 and we are working towards meeting that timeline," Milee Ashwarya, publisher, Penguin Random House India, told The Wire in an email.

General Naravane retired as the Chief of Army Staff on April 30, 2022 and has since completed his PhD in defence and strategic studies from Punjabi University, Patiala.

April 30, or May would be a time of considerable ferment in the country, when the news cycle would be fully consumed by the elections expected at the time, most of the contours of the political campaign would be almost set by then.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.