Former Army chief General M M Naravane’s memoir, Four Stars of Destiny, cited by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in his criticism of the Government, stands out as an outlier in the Ministry of Defence’s record of clearing books by retired military personnel.
Over a five-year period from 2020 to 2024, Gen Naravane’s book is the only manuscript still pending clearance by the Ministry, despite dozens having moved through the process and been approved.
In a response dated September 17, 2024, to a Right to Information application filed by The Indian Express in January that year, the Ministry of Defence’s Army unit said that 35 book titles had come before it for approval since 2020.
Of these, only three were listed as not yet cleared — one of them being General Naravane’s memoir. The Indian Express had first reported on the review of Gen Naravane’s book on January 5, 2024.