India, Feb. 10 -- India has reached a moment where the distance between image and reality has grown so wide that it can no longer be masked by slogans, studio debates, or choreographed nationalism, and the unease surrounding the unpublished memoir Four Stars of Destiny by Manoj Mukund Naravane exposes that gap with brutal clarity. This is not a tale of leaked secrets or protocol breaches; it is the quieter, more dangerous story of hesitation at the top when decisiveness was demanded, and of a soldier left to shoulder the weight of history while political leadership chose ambiguity over ownership.

At the height of the 2020 standoff with China, when the situation along the Line of Actual Control was spiraling and Chinese armor moved into t...