Why Rahul Gandhi is right about Doklam area and 2020, wrong about China tanks at Doklam

In a heated parliamentary debate on Monday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, referenced an incident involving "four Chinese tanks entering Indian territory", which isn't marked, claiming it occurred in Doklam in 2020. Rahul Gandhi was trying to quote from a magazine article based on an unpublished memoir by former Army Chief General MM Naravane (Retired). People have been quick to point out that the Doklam face-off took place in 2017, and Rahul Gandhi was wrong. Yes, Rahul was technically wrong, but the Doklam instance he was referring to was indeed from 2020.

Now, that might sound really confusing. But stay on with us, and we will explain Rahul Gandhi's mix-up, and the Doklam reference from 2020.

In his speech in Parliament, comments to the media outside, and also from the Congress's social media handles, it is clear what Rahul Gandhi was trying to highlight. He was trying to quote from an article from the latest issue of The Caravan magazine, which draws from the unpublished memoir of General Naravane, Four Stars Of Destiny.

The memoir is being reviewed by the Ministry of Defence. Therefore, we will not go into its extracts, though some of it is available in the public domain, especially after the Congress shared it on social media platforms.

This is from the memoirs of (former) Army Chief Naravane, this is about when four Chinese tanks were entering Indian territory; they were taking a ridge in Doklam," Rahul Gandhi said, using the reference to reply to BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.

Just to calm nerves here, the moment that the Congress leader was referencing to had been made public in 2023 itself, when Naravane's book was being promoted.

People have claimed that the big Doklam face-off took place in 2017, while Gen Naravane was the Army chief between 2019 and 2022. The Galwan clashes of 2020 took place when Gen Naravane was the Army chief.

'TANK MOVEMENT' NOT AT DOKLAM BUT RECHIN LA: REPORT

A close examination of The Caravan article, 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 at Rechin La in eastern Ladakh, not Doklam. The straight-line distance between the two places is around 1,200 km.

Rechin La is about 30 km from the Rezang La mountain pass in Ladakh. While Google Maps does not show the exact distance between Galwan Valley and Rechin La, the two are roughly 150 km apart in a straight-line distance, both located along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The article, quoting the unpublished memoir, details a standoff on August 31, 2020, where "four Chinese tanks, supported by PLA infantry, advanced towards Indian positions on the Kailash Range". The range lies in the Trans-Himalayas and extends from around where the Zanskar Range ends into the Tibet region and Nepal.

The part of the article Rahul Gandhi was referring to and the Congress shared mentions, "The tanks were within a few hundred metres of Indian positions on the Kailash Range, the strategic high ground that Indian forces had seized, hours earlier, in a dangerous race with China's People's Liberation Army. In this terrain on the disputed Line of Actual Control — the de facto border between the two countries — every metre of elevation translates to strategic dominance."

That was an instance from the night of August 31, 2020. The event, according to the article, unfolded along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, a region that saw escalating tensions culminating in the Galwan clash in June that year.

The Leader of Opposition was referring to an incident described in the article in which Lieutenant General YK Joshi (Retd), then head of the Northern Command, alerted Naravane at 8.15 pm about the Chinese movement. The tanks were climbing a steep track towards Rechin La, coming within a few hundred metres of Indian troops.

Joshi, according to the article, urged using medium artillery, but Naravane opted against firing first, instead ordering Indian tanks to position nose-down on the forward slopes, pointing directly at the Chinese armour. This deterred the PLA, which halted, in what Naravane described as a "game of bluff" where China "blinked first", the magazine article notes.

DOKLAM AREA ISSUES PERSISTED IN 2020 ALSO

Though the Doklam face-off that is known have taken place in 2017, there was tension in the sector even in 2020, according to reports. The 30-page Caravan article does reference Doklam five times, but in a different context.

Doklam, the tri-junction between India, China, and Bhutan is where a 73-day standoff occurred in 2017, where Indian troops intervened to stop Chinese road construction in Bhutanese territory claimed by China, leading to a face-off that ended with a mutual withdrawal.

While a major face-off in Doklam occurred three years before the Galwan clashes, there was also buzz around it in 2020 amid the Ladakh crisis, with 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 confrontations, not at Doklam.

WHY CONFUSION BETWEEN DOKLAM AND RECHIN LA?

The confusion between Rechin La and Doklam might have stemmed from the article's broader discussion of border tensions across the LAC.

The Caravan article mentions other incidents related to Doklam area; however, the details have not been independently verified. Gen Naravane's book the report is based on, as stated earlier, is being reviewed by the Ministry of Defence.

Naravane's memoir, intended for publication by Penguin in April 2024, remains unpublished, pending defence ministry review as of February 2026. Extracts were released by the Press Trust of India (PTI) in December 2023, but the full typescript was seen by The Caravan.

While Rahul Gandhi's reference to four Chinese tanks is picked from the magazine article, his attribution to Doklam is incorrect, as the incident, according to the piece, was in Rechin La, Ladakh.

In 2020, amid the larger India-China border crisis in eastern Ladakh, including the Galwan clash in June, Doklam area was referenced in discussions and reports as part of the broader pattern of tensions. So, Rahul Gandhi's mention of Doklam in 2020 isn't incorrect, but the specific event he was referring to wasn't from Doklam area, but Rechin La.