From his speech in Parliament, the comments in the media outside the US, and also from the Congress’s social-klam media reports, it is clear what Rahul Gandhi was trying to emphasize. He was trying to quote from an article in the latest issue of The Caravan magazine, which is based on General Naravane’s unpublished memoirs, Four Stars Of Destiny.
The memoir is under review by the Department of Defense. Therefore, we will not go into its excerpts even though some of it is available in the public domain, especially after Congress shared it on social media platforms.
“This is from the memoirs of (former) army chief Naravanethis is about when four Chinese tanks entered Indian territory; they were capturing a ridge in Doklam,” said Rahul Gandhi, who used the reference in a reply to BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.
To calm the nerves, the moment the Congress leader referred to had been made public in 2023 itself, when Naravane’s book was being promoted.
People have claimed that the major Doklam clash took place in 2017 while General Naravane was the Army Chief between 2019 and 2022. The Galwan clashes of 2020 took place when General Naravane was the Army Chief.
‘TANK MOVEMENT’ NOT AT DOKLAM BUT RIGHT LA: REPORT
A close examination of the article in The Caravan, titled “Naravane’s Moment of Truth”, reveals that the specific incident described in the former army chief’s memoir, Four Stars of Destiny, took place in Rechin La in eastern Ladakh, and not in Doklam. The straight line distance between the two places is approximately 1,200 km.
Rechin La is located about 30 km from the Rezang La mountain pass in Ladakh. Although Google Maps does not show the exact distance between Galwan Valley and Rechin La, the two are about 150 km apart in a straight line, both located along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The article, which quotes the unpublished memoirs, describes a standoff on August 31, 2020, in which “four Chinese tanks, supported by PLA infantry, advanced towards Indian positions on the Kailash Range”. The range is in the Trans-Himalayas and extends from where the Zanskar Range ends into the Tibet region and Nepal.
The part of the article that Rahul Gandhi referred to and shared with Congress states: “The tanks were within a few hundred meters of Indian positions on the Kailash Range, the strategic high ground that Indian troops had captured hours earlier in a dangerous race with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In this area on the disputed Line of Actual Control – the de facto border between the two countries – every meter of height translates into strategic dominance.”
That was an example from the night of August 31, 2020. According to the article, the event took place along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, a region where escalating tensions culminated in the Galwan clash in June that year.
The Opposition Leader referred to an incident described in the article in which Lt Gen YK Joshi (Retd), then Northern Command chief, warned Naravane about the Chinese move at 8.15 pm. The tanks climbed a steep path towards Rechin La and came within a few hundred meters of Indian troops.
Joshi, according to the article, urged using medium artillery, but Naravane opted not to fire first, instead ordering Indian tanks to position themselves nose-down on the forward slopes, aimed directly at the Chinese armor. This deterred the PLA, which quit in what Naravane described as a “game of bluffing” with China “blinking first,” the magazine article said.
PROBLEMS IN THE DOKLAM AREA WILL CONTINUE IN 2020
Although the famous Doklam showdown took place in 2017, there was tension in the sector even in 2020, according to reports. The 30-page Caravan article refers to Doklam five times, but in a different context.
Doklam, the three-way intersection A 73-day standoff took place in India, China and Bhutan in 2017where Indian troops intervened to stop Chinese road construction in Chinese-claimed Bhutanese territory, leading to a confrontation that ended with a mutual withdrawal.
While a major The Doklam clash took place three years before the Galwan clashesthere was buzz around it in 2020 too, amid the Ladakh crisis reports of renewed Chinese infrastructure activity near the tri-junction.
However, the memoir’s detailed account of the tank advance is explicitly set in Rechin La, part of the 2020 Ladakh clashes, and not in Doklam.
WHY CONFUSION BETWEEN DOKLAM AND RECHIN LA?
The confusion between Rechin La and Doklam could be a result of the article’s broader discussion of border tensions in the LAC.
The Caravan article mentions other incidents related to the Doklam area; however, the details have not been independently verified. General Naravane’s book on which the report is based is, as mentioned earlier, under review by the Ministry of Defense.
Naravane’s memoirs, intended for publication by Penguin in April 2024, remain unpublished, pending a review by the Ministry of Defense from February 2026. Excerpts were released by the Press Trust of India (PTI) in December 2023, but the full typescript was seen by The Caravan.
Although Rahul Gandhi’s reference to four Chinese tanks has been removed from the magazine article, his attribution to Doklam is incorrect as the incident, according to the piece, took place in Rechin La, Ladakh.
In 2020, amid the larger border crisis between India and China in eastern Ladakh, including the Galwan clash in JuneDiscussions and reports referred to the Doklam area as part of the broader pattern of tensions. So, Rahul Gandhi’s mention of Doklam in 2020 is not incorrect, but the specific event he referred to was not from the Doklam area but from Rechin La.
– Ends
#Rahul #Gandhi #Doklam #area #wrong #Chinese #tanks #Doklam