Mumbai: Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday cited a December 15, 2023 social media post by former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane’s memoir Four Stars of Destiny was “available now” to challenge publisher Penguin Random House India’s claim that the book has not yet been published.
Speaking to reporters in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday, Gandhi read out Naravane’s post on X (then Twitter), which said, “Hello friends. My book is available now. Just follow the link. Happy reading. Jai Hind.” “This is the tweet Mr Naravane has made. The point I am making is either Mr Naravane is lying, and I believe the (former) Army chief, I don’t think he will lie, or Penguin is lying. Both cannot be telling the truth,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
The book was listed for sale on Amazon and also appeared on Walmart’s website, where it was shown as “out of stock”. The ISBN number 9780670099757 and the copyright page mention © Manoj Naravane 2024, with the imprint stating: First published in Penguin Veer by Penguin Random House India 2024. “Penguin is saying the book is not published. The book is available on Amazon. Gen Naravane has tweeted, as I just read to you, that please buy my book. He tweeted this in 2023. Do you believe in Penguin over Mr Naravane? I believe Mr Naravane,” Gandhi added.
The remarks came a day after Penguin Random House India (PRHI) issued a clarification stating that it holds the exclusive publishing rights to Naravane’s memoir and that the book has not gone into publication. The publisher said no copies of the book, either in print or digital form, had been published, distributed or made available to the public, and any version of the book currently circulating would amount to copyright infringement.
“Penguin Random House India would like to clarify that we hold the sole publishing rights for the book ‘Four Stars of Destiny’, a memoir by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, former Chief of the Indian Army. We wish to make it clear that the book has not gone into publication,” the statement said. Naravane on Tuesday reposted Penguin Random House India’s clarification on X, writing: “This is the status of the book.”
The clarification followed the registration of an FIR by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell over the alleged illegal circulation of the manuscript in digital and other formats. Police said a thorough investigation is underway into the alleged leak or breach of a yet-to-beapproved publication. Gandhi claimed that the issue was not about a ban but about official permission from the Ministry of Defence.
“The book was available abroad”, he said, while declining to disclose how he obtained a hardcover copy. Against this backdrop, a key question remains unanswered: if the memoir “has not gone into publication,” as the publisher insists, how did Rahul Gandhi obtain a hardcover copy of the book by General Naravane?
