Modi’s Reply on Motion of Thanks Cancelled as House Adjourned after Opposition Ruckus
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 4: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks for the President’s address in the Lok Sabha had to be cancelled on Wednesday after massive protests by the Opposition led to multiple adjournments, with the final adjournment for the day coming just minutes before the prime minister was to rise for his address at 5 PM.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi – who has been claiming that the government did not allow him to quote from the unpublished memoirs of former Army chief MM Naravane because it was “scared” – alleged that PM backed out from speaking because he was afraid.
The ruckus — on since Rahul Gandhi’s proposed speech and Tuesday’s suspension of eight Opposition MPs after extensive protests – had escalated over comments by the BJP’s Nishikant Dubey. Dubey said while Rahul Gandhi wants to speak about an unpublished book, he (Dubey) has brought a series of books to expose the Gandhi family. Then he started listing the books and what they said about various members of the Gandhi family.
Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was on the Chair, said he could not allow this, citing Rule 349, which bars members from reading from any book, newspaper or letter except in connection with the business of the House. As Dubey refused to relent despite the admonition, Opposition members strongly protested. The house was then adjourned again.
Gandhi – who claimed that the government was trying to stop him from speaking on the very relevant issue of national security – said earlier in the day that he would present a book to PM that exposes how political leadership left the army to act alone during the 2020 China border crisis.
“Today, if the Prime Minister comes to Parliament, I will present him with a book. This book is not by any opposition leader. This book is not by any foreign author. This book is by the country’s former Army Chief, General Naravane, and the surprising thing is that, according to the Cabinet Ministers, this book does not even exist,” he wrote on X.
He has suggested that he was deliberately stopped from speaking and even wrote to Speaker Om Birla about the matter on Tuesday after eight Opposition MPs were suspended for the rest of the budget session. After the Prime Minister’s speech was cancelled, Gandhi posted: As I said, PM Modi won’t come to Parliament because he is scared and doesn’t want to face the truth.
His sister, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also made a similar claim, saying the Prime Minister was “too scared to enter parliament.” Earlier, Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm following vociferous protests by Opposition members over issues related to Naravane’s “memoirs.” Later, the Congress MPs held a demonstration outside the Parliament building demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak on the President’s address.
Outside the House, Rahul Gandhi held up the book as he doubled down on his claim that the Modi government mishandled the border dispute with China. This was the same book that Gandhi wanted to cite in the Lok Sabha, but was stopped as it is not published yet. He asserted that he was only quoting from a magazine article that carried excerpts from this book. But he could not, as the Lok Sabha speaker and the ruling BJP-led NDA cited rules against such quoting.
On Wednesday, on the third consecutive day of the controversy, he brought a printed version of the book — which is currently pending for approval with the Ministry of Defence — to the Parliament premises, and flashed it to cameras, General Naravane’s autobiography, ‘Four Stars of Destiny,’ which is not available for purchase as it needed government approval that’s not yet been granted.
That did not stop Rahul Gandhi from creating a dramatic moment on Wednesday, with a copy in hand. “See, it exists — the book the government says does not,” he said. In a video posted on his X handle, he further said, “I don’t think PM (Narendra Modi) will have the guts to come to the Lok Sabha today, because if he comes I’m going to give him this book. So, if the PM comes, I will go physically and hand him this book.”
Gen Naravane has not spoken on the matter so far, though he has in the past confirmed that the book was pending for defence ministry’s approval.
Rahul Gandhi claimed the former army chief wrote that when he informed Rajnath Singh and other leaders, including NSA Ajit Doval, about “Chinese tanks approaching,” he got no direct reply for a long time. “And then he writes that the PM’s message conveyed to him was, ‘Jo uchit samjho, woh karo’ (‘Do what you think is right’)… This means Narendra Modi ji did not fulfil his responsibility; effectively telling the army chief to handle it as he could not decide,” the Congress leader said, speaking in Hindi.
“Naravane ji has clearly said in this, that he felt alone and was abandoned by the entire establishment,” Rahul Gandhi further claimed. “This is the very truth that I am being stopped from speaking in Parliament. The country is asking questions, and the government is running away from answering,” Rahul Gandhi wrote on X.
Gandhi’s insistence on quoting a part about the 2020 border tensions with China from the unpublished book, via excerpts mentioned in The Caravan magazine, led to a government uproar. This has stalled the Lok Sabha since Monday, February 2, when Parliament took up for discussion the Motion of Thanks to the Presidential Address for the Budget Session.
Rajnath Singh and others allegedly named in the book have not responded to the express allegations about their handling of the Galwan clash and other India-China border issues. Rajnath Singh had argued “with full confidence” in the Lok Sabha on Monday — as Rahul Gandhi held up a printout of the article citing the book — that the alleged points made in the unpublished book were “not correct”, which is why it is held up.
He asked rhetorically why the writer of the claimed book (Gen Naravane) “did not go to court” over the pending approval “if the facts in it are right”. Home minister Amit Shah and other BJP MPs also repeatedly said the book was “never published”. Speaker Om Birla agreed with their contention.
“(Rahul Gandhi) should present the book that he is claiming to quote from. I want to see it; this House wants to see it,” Rajnath Singh said on Monday. This line of argument continued on Tuesday. For a third day, on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha was adjourned again amid sloganeering by Opposition members over the suspension of eight MPs during the previous day’s Budget Session sitting. The members were suspended for the remainder of the session over “throwing papers at the Chair” following the uproar over Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on mentioning the reference to the 2020 standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.
General Naravane’s book was supposed to be published in April 2024, as per pre-order announcements made in late 2023 by the publisher, Penguin.
Amazon still has a listing that says in the price section: “Currently unavailable. We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.”
The former army chief was asked about this book in October 2025 at a literature festival in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, where was in a session on his recently published fiction, ‘The Cantonment Conspiracy.’ “I just want to ask you, why your first book was not cleared and published,” an audience member said during the livecast session.
“Even I want to know that,” Gen Naravane said. “No, no, surely you must be knowing something,” the audience member insisted. “My job was to write the book and give it to the publishers. It is for the publishers to get permission from the MoD (Ministry of Defence). They have given it to them, and it is still under review,” he said.
He added that it’s been under review “for more than a year now”, as of October 2025. “So it’s not for me, it’s beyond; not for me to actually follow up,” Gen Naravane added, “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.”
It is considered standard practice for books by former senior military officials to undergo scrutiny to check for sensitive material, but General Naravane’s book drew controversy for reportedly revealing discussions on issues such as the Agnipath scheme and the Galwan clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a fight with the Chinese. Gen MM Naravane served as India’s Chief of Army Staff from December 2019 to April 2022.
Its Amazon and Flipkart listings say it has 448 pages.
The description reads: “From his first encounter with the Chinese as a young officer in Sikkim to dealing with them in Galwan when he was Chief, from daily incidents of firing across the LC to implementing a ceasefire with Pakistan, General Naravane takes us through his distinguished career spanning over four decades that saw him serve in all corners of the country.”
As for Naravane’s other book, military thriller ‘The Cantonment Conspiracy,’ that was published in March 2025. This fictional account has two officers at a defence academy investigating a case of assault and murder in a garrison.
