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Parliament was stalled in the Budget session as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refused to answer questions over its conduct on the border in 2020. The opposition demanded an explanation from Prime Minister Modi and defence minister Rajnath Singh on former Army chief Gen M.M. Naravane’s revelations in his memoirs on how vital decisions are made (and not made) by this government.

As explained in The Caravan magazine’s recent cover story, as Indian soldiers confronted Chinese tanks advancing in August 2020, just weeks after India had lost 20 men on its eastern border in Galwan, Modi’s answer to a frazzled army chief – as conveyed by RM (Raksha Mantri) Rajnath Singh was, “jo uchit samjho wo karo” (‘Do whatever you think is appropriate’). Gen Naravane writes in his now suppressed book, Four Stars of Destiny, that this response, conveyed many hours after he urgently asked the political command for orders, left him feeling abandoned. The prime minister had ended up abdicating the responsibility of initiating, or avoiding, a military conflict with China.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

The Army chief had to take recourse to hurriedly doing things which no armed forces chief must do in a functional democracy, scratch his head for what might be the best course for India – to hit back, risking a........

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