- Sonia Gandhi's memoir faced issues in India over passages on China, Modi, RSS, say Congress sources
- Penguin Random House India sought edits on these parts, which Gandhi refused, they say
- Penguin India says it was never the official publisher but wanted to fact-check
Three sets of passages in Sonia Gandhi's forthcoming memoir were at the centre of discussions between the Congress leader and Penguin Random House India before the publisher decided not to publish the book in the country, Congress sources have told NDTV. These were: Chinese incursions along India's borders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and central government policies, and the role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India's social history.
American publisher Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of the global firm Penguin Random House, recently announced that the book would be released on November 10. The controversy now is over who'll publish it in India even as pre-orders for the e-book format are open. Penguin Random House India has not shared details of its reported denial - saying that it was keen to publish 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' but needed to "check facts" before it - but Congress sources have said the parts that came up during the manuscript stage related mainly to these three subjects.
What's The Row About?
The first was the China border dispute. The book, these sources said, deals prominently with Chinese incursions into Indian territory and with the present situation on the border, an issue Sonia Gandhi and the Congress, led by her son Rahul Gandhi as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, have raised repeatedly in Parliament and outside it.
Sonia Gandhi has also questioned Narendra Modi's leadership and working style, and several major policies of the central government, the sources said.
The third is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), parent body of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an organisation Modi worked in before switching to full-time politics. The memoir carries her views on the influence of the RSS on national affairs and on India's social fabric, according to Congress sources.
When Penguin India proposed that certain passages be edited or removed, Sonia Gandhi declined, taking the position that the facts and views in the book rest on her own experience and perspective and were therefore not open to alteration, they added. The Congress has also attacked the BJP over the episode, with party sources describing the pressure around the book as a "BJP-engineered move".
What Penguin India Says
The India arm of Penguin Random House said it was never the publisher of the book. It statement further said, "As a publisher, it is both our prerogative and our responsibility to fact check and provide authors with recommendations that are in the best interests of their books. This is a normal part of the publishing process."
It added, "Throughout the relevant discussions, Penguin Random House India's position was that we remained willing and keen to publish the book. We will not comment further on confidential discussions with the author."
Several other Indian publishers are now reported to be in the race for the rights, including HarperCollins.
What The Book Has
In a statement issued through Knopf when the book was announced, Sonia Gandhi said, "Much has been written about my family, but few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings."
She added, "In many ways, this book is a homage to their humanness. My story also offers readers a unique perspective of the social and political changes I have witnessed for six decades in the beautiful country of my belonging... It was heartbreak and loss that threw me into the public world of politics. Up till then I had guarded my privacy fiercely."
On her creative process, she said: "Writing about my life did not come easily to me. It meant opening myself up, sharing moments and experiences I had always held deep inside. Yet as I gradually removed myself from the political sphere and looked back at all I had seen, the thread of love and loyalty that wove through my story began to define itself, from the simplicity of my childhood in small-town Italy, to the complexity of my years in India as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi."
The book covers her life being upended by the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the killing of Rajiv Gandhi seven years later, her subsequent entry into politics, her tenure as the longest-serving Congress president, and her decision to turn down the party's offer to become prime minister in 2004.
