New Delhi: What was in The Caravan report that Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi was attempting to read out in Parliament before being prevented from doing so by members of the treasury bench and Speaker Om Birla?
The excerpt from former Army Chief General M M Naravane’s yet to be published book “Four Stars of Destiny”, does mention Chinese tanks, but does not say that they entered Indian territory.
The incident was from the night of August 31, 2020, nearly two months after the deadly clash between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan.
On the morning of August 31, Indian forces had executed a bold operation, occupying key heights on the Kailash Range south of Pangong Tso. These positions commanded PLA deployments below and altered the tactical equation after months of deadlock. This was called Operation Snow Leopard.
Later that evening, four Chinese tanks, with infantry support started moving towards Indian positions at Rechin La. Gen Naravane immediately called up defence minister Rajnath Singh, then chief of defence staff Gen Bipin Rawat, national security adviser Ajit Doval and external affairs minister S Jaishankar, seeking orders.
Singh later called back the Army chief, after consultations with the Prime Minister, and asked him to do whatever he seemed fit under the circumstances. Gen Naravane immediately ordered Indian tanks to move forward. Before long, Indian and Chinese tanks were facing each other. There was no transgression of Indian territory by the Chinese.
While Gen Naravane’s memoir does speak of a possible indecision on the part of the country’s political leadership, it also highlights the fact that the chief was given full powers to take a decision, as was witnessed during Operation Sindoor.
Experts say that the best the political leadership can do at such times is leave the decision to the top military commander.
This did pay off. The tanks of both countries came face-to-face, but not a single shot was fired. Indian troops continued to hold on to their commanding position on the Kailash Range.
