New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday said that if he is allowed to quote the unpublished memoir of former Army chief MM Naravane, Four Stars of Destiny, then people will come to know “What happened to 56 inch chest when China was advancing towards us.”
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, he said, “I am not being allowed to speak. I want to say in the House what the army chief has written.” Launching a direct attack on PM Modi, Gandhi said, “Naravane ji has written about the PM, Rajnath Singh, which is in an article, I am quoting the article, which I am not being allowed to speak. They are afraid that if this comes out, people will know the reality that when China was advancing towards us, what had happened to the 56-inch chest?”
The statement comes after the uproar in Parliament was triggered by Rahul Gandhi, after he attempted to quote from the unpublished “memoir” of former Army chief Gen M M Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict during the Motion of Thanks debate, drawing strong objections from defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP MPs, who accused him of “misleading the House.”
Earlier, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi defended her brother and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi. Responding to the BJP’s allegations that Gandhi had defamed the Army, Priyanka Gandhi said, “They (BJP) always say this whenever something comes out that they want to hide.”
“He was not trying to defame the Army. He was reading an excerpt from the book of the Army Chief. They (BJP) always say this whenever something comes out that they want to hide,” Priyanka said while speaking to news agency ANI outside Parliament after the uproar.
