Former Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane was at a book-signing event for his novel ‘The Cantonment Conspiracy’ when he was asked about his writing plans. He told reporters that now he is only into fiction-writing, news agency ANI reported from Pune on Friday.
This came around seven weeks after his lone non-fiction title — his unpublished memoir ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ that’s pending for government approval — rocked the country’s Parliament. Because, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi tried to cite its excerpts to assert that the BJP government’s policy had been weak against China during the 2020 border hostilities.
“I’ve always been writing from time to time, not only military reports but also for various academic journals of the army. I had also written a few short stories, one of which was even published in the (magazine) Femina. I am now only into writing fiction,” he was quoted as saying in Pune.
On his novel ‘The Cantonment Conspiracy’, which was released last year, he said, “I’m glad to say that the book is [doing] relatively well for a first-time author who had no idea how to write. It has been an interesting journey to write this book, and transition from being a soldier to being a storyteller. So I enjoyed writing it, and I’m sure all those who read it will enjoy reading it too.”
‘The Cantonment Conspiracy’, published by Penguin Random House India, is a murder mystery weaved around two army officers fresh out of the National Defence Academy (NDA).
On his memoir, he has already clarified via X that its status is ‘unpublished’. That clarification came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi waved a physical copy on Parliament premises.
It is not published yet, hence cannot be cited, according to Rajnath Singh, who heads the defence ministry where it’s reportedly pending for approval since 2023.
General Naravane has not spoken on the contents as such. Rahul Gandhi says some portions show the government delayed response and later the PM Narendra Modi put the onus on Gen Naravane alone on how to respond to a Chinese military threat.
Gen Naravane has in the past lamented the ongoing delay in approval for that book. He has also shared how he decided to write it at all.
“I had no intention of writing a memoir or an autobiography,” he told web channel Lallantop in an interview in April 2025, a year after the book was originally supposed to be published. “Penguin (publishing house) had published a book on the late General Bipin Rawat. I went to its book release in March 2023. People who had come from Penguin, jokingly I told them that ‘you aren’t publishing a book of mine’. In response, they asked, ‘Have you written a book?’ I said no,” he recalled.
“I told them, ‘If you say so, I will write it’, to which they said, ‘Yes sir, it will be a matter of pride if you give us this opportunity to publish your book’,” the retired officer said. “And like that, by the way, this process started for me to write a book.” He said the satisfaction he has got by writing the book “is enough”.
He said in October last year that he had done his job by writing the book, and its status was now “between the publisher and the MoD”.
It was on February 2, during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address, that Lok Sabha witnessed sharp verbal exchanges after Rahul Gandhi sought to quote a magazine article containing excerpts from General Naravane’s unpublished memoir.
Gandhi’s reply was interrupted by defence minister Rajnath Singh, who raised concerns that a Congress MP cannot quote from an unpublished book, which he said has not been “authenticated”.
The row escalated to an extent where Opposition MPs recently brought a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, with allegedly not letting Rahul Gandhi speak in the House being one of the reasons.
The motion was dropped after a voice vote in the second phase of the Budget Session of the Parliament.
