Narasimha Rao's Grandson Slams Sonia Gandhi For Omitting Ex-PM In Memoir

Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao's grandson, NV Subhash, has termed Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's memoirs a "pack of lies" and slammed her for deliberately ignoring the contribution of the former PM.

Subhash, also the chief spokesperson for the BJP's Telangana unit, accused Gandhi of deliberately ignoring the contributions made by Rao to the Congress party and the nation and said he was "not surprised" by the omission.

"As a member of late PV Narasimha Rao's family, it was no big surprise for us that he was not mentioned in the book. She (Gandhi) will definitely and deliberately want to avoid the contributions made by him for the Congress party and the nation," he claimed.

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Subhash said that it was a "habitual practice" of the Gandhi family to overlook and "belittle" its own leaders in order to highlight members of the Gandhi family.

"Narasimha Rao, the father of India's economic reforms and the country's first Prime Minister from the South, deserves recognition. Without him, could India have achieved those reforms? I respect Dr Manmohan Singh, but it was Narasimha Rao who chose him as Finance Minister and backed the economic reforms despite criticism, including from within the Congress," he said.

Questioning Rao's omission from the memoirs, Subhash asked: "Why does Sonia Gandhi refuse to acknowledge his contribution to the Congress and the nation? He also helped keep the Congress party intact after Rajiv Gandhi's death."

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He lauded the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recognising Rao's legacy and awarding him the Bharat Ratna in February 2024.

Subhash further alleged that Sonia Gandhi's book contained historical blunders concerning the Gandhi family's tenure in power, including during the time of the Emergency.

He further said that on going through the book, "we see a lot of disparity and contradictions. "Citing an example of one such contradiction, Subhash said, "On the one hand, she says she was not interested in her husband, late former PM Rajiv Gandhi, entering into politics and on the other, she promotes her children into mainstream politics and in the future, her grandchildren also. So this is the hypocrisy."