4 min readNew DelhiFeb 6, 2026 10:42 AM IST
First published on: Feb 5, 2026 at 03:19 PM IST
With Parliament continuing to remain in a gridlock — the Lok Sabha on Thursday adopted the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address without the Prime Minister’s reply — the focus throughout this week has been on former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane (Retd), who led the Indian Army through one of its most testing periods in recent history. The Opposition has disrupted the proceedings as Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi insists on quoting from General Naravane’s unpublished memoir to target PM Narendra Modi and his government over its handling of a standoff with the Chinese military in eastern Ladakh in August 2020.
General Naravane was Chief of the Army Staff from December 2019 to April 2022, a tenure marked most notably by the prolonged military standoff with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Soft-spoken, low-key, and widely regarded within the Army as a consensus-builder, General Naravane earned a reputation for taking firm positions when strategic decisions demanded clarity. Commissioned into the 7th Battalion of the Sikh Light Infantry in June 1980, he served for over four decades and held a wide range of operational, instructional, and diplomatic assignments. He commanded a Rashtriya Rifles battalion in Jammu and Kashmir, served in the Assam Rifles in the Northeast, and later led a Strike Corps on the western front. His experience in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations was complemented by exposure to regional geopolitics as India’s defence attache to Myanmar. He also served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka.
Before taking over as Army chief, General Naravane served as the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Eastern Command, and headed the Army Training Command in Shimla. These appointments placed him at the heart of operational preparedness, force structuring, and doctrinal evolution at a time when India’s security environment was rapidly changing. For many, his path to the top was evident when he was placed in command of the prestigious Strike Corps headquartered at Ambala and the Eastern Command, which is tasked with securing the India-China border.
Barely months into his tenure as Army chief, General Naravane found himself dealing with the most serious military confrontation with China in decades. The June 2020 clash in the Galwan Valley, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers, marked a turning point in India-China relations. Under his leadership, the Army undertook a massive mobilisation in eastern Ladakh, reinforcing forward areas, upgrading infrastructure, and recalibrating operational posture along the LAC.
Alongside managing the China crisis, General Naravane oversaw the groundwork and, in some cases, implementation of major military reforms. These included the Agnipath recruitment scheme, restructuring of Army Headquarters, reorientation of Strike Corps, and early steps toward the creation of Integrated Theatre Commands.
Born in 1960 in Pune, General Naravane’s father, Mukund Naravane, served in the Indian Air Force, while his mother, the late Sudha Naravane, was a noted Marathi short-story writer and a broadcaster with All India Radio. An alumnus of Jnana Prabodhini Prashala, he joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) at 16 as part of the 56th course. His coursemates included future Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria and future Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh.
After graduating from the NDA and the Indian Military Academy (IMA), General Naravane earned a Master’s degree in defence studies and an MPhil in defence and management studies from the Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore.
General Naravane is a keen non-fiction reader and has a particular fondness for Nagaland. His wife Veena is a teacher. They have two daughters, one of whom is a performing artiste and the other a public relations professional.