Sharmistha Mukherjee objects to Sonia Gandhi’s account of her father’s ambition

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s memoir drew sharp replies on 10 November, the day it was released. Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the late President Pranab Mukherjee, asked whether it was “a crime to be ambitious”, and BJP leaders questioned the book’s account of the Emergency and the 1984 riots.

The book, Belonging: A Journey of Love, is published in India by HarperCollins India, The Hindu reported.

The passage on Pranab Mukherjee

In the book, Ms. Gandhi recalls a conversation with Mr. Mukherjee in 2010, when he was Finance Minister in Manmohan Singh’s government. She writes that “he shocked me with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for a change at the top”, NDTV reported. The Times of India said she described it as a hint at his wish to become Prime Minister.

Ms. Mukherjee, a former Congress spokesperson, questioned why that should shock anyone. Her father served as President from 2012 to 2017 and died in 2020.

Ms. Gandhi also writes that power was clearly divided in the years of the United Progressive Alliance government: Dr. Singh ran the government and she led the party, according to Hindustan Times.

The BJP’s criticism

BJP leaders accused Ms. Gandhi of trying to justify the Emergency of 1975–77, The Indian Express reported. The book calls her brother-in-law Sanjay Gandhi “a man in a hurry” in its account of that period.

H. S. Phoolka, a lawyer for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots who is now in the BJP, disputed her account of when the Army was called in after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, The Times of India reported. The book calls the riots a tragic and shameful chapter in the country’s history.

NDTV also reported that the book gives the wrong year for the death of Ahmed Patel, Ms. Gandhi’s long-time political adviser, who died in November 2020.

The Congress had not replied to the criticism when this story was published.

The journalist N. Ram told NDTV that the book was not timed for the 2029 general election, and that politics came up only in the course of the family story.