Congress president Sonia Gandhi will counter the claims made by former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh in his upcoming biography regarding several of her decisions and reported interference in functioning of the Government by penning down her own story.
Sonia received support from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who refuted allegations that the UPA Government sent files to 10 Janpath for approval.“I will write my own book and then you will come to know everything...The only way the truth will come out is if I write...I am serious about it and I will be writing,” Sonia said talking to reporters in Parliament House.
She was reacting to a question about claims made by Natwar Singh in his upcoming biography that it was not her “inner voice” that prevented her from taking up the Prime Minister’s post in May 2004, but opposition from her son Rahul Gandhi. Natwar claimed that Rahul pleaded with Sonia not to become PM fearing she might be killed like Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.
While the Congress slammed Singh over the remarks alleging that they were a marketing stunt and politically motivated, Natwar Singh on Thursday also raked up the Italian origin of the longest-serving party president.The BJP sought a reply from Sonia Gandhi on the issues raised by Natwar Singh in his book. The party also asked her to answer if she had gone to meet Singh to stop him from writing the book as claimed by the former Congress leader.
An estranged Gandhi family friend, 83-year-old Natwar Singh had quit the Congress in 2008 after he had to resign from the UPA-I Government in 2005 in the wake of the Iraqi food-for-oil scam. The book titled “One life is Not Enough: An Autobiography” is due to be released soon.
Insisting that she is not hurt, Sonia said that she had seen worse things like her husband Rajiv Gandhi being assassinated and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi riddled with bullets. “I am far from getting hurt by these things. These things do not affect me,” she said.Singh also endorsed the claim of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru that important Government files were taken to Sonia by PMO man Pulok Chatterjee.
Reacting to these allegations, Manmohan Singh said it was a bid to market his product and dismissed his contention that PMO files were sent to the Congress president for approval.He also used the occasion to attack Baru saying he too had tried to market his book by making certain claims. “This is their way of trying to market their product,” Singh said. When asked by the media, whether he thought it was fair for insiders to reveal certain details, Singh shot back, “What revelationsIJ”
“Private conversations should not be made public for capital gains. I had contradicted it then (during Baru’s book claims), I repeat that this is not true,” said the former PM coming out in full defence of the party’s first family.leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said that he himself had been a Union Minister and “Sonia Gandhi never asked for any such thing (asking for important files as claimed in Natwar’s book) from me. There is no question of files being sent to her.”
AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi condemned Singh’s “revelations” as all insinuation, allegations and innuendoes. Singhvi reminded the Natwar was once a Gandhi family loyalist and then he had tried to join the BJP after being expelled from the Congress and currently his son is a BJP MlA from Rajasthan.
“I am not doing it piecemeal. We deny all allegations and innuendoes...It is unfortunate that a person who rose to occupy a top post due to the Congress and was made aware of many sensitive facts, misuses and distorts those facts after being removed and publishes baseless things,” Singhvi said at the Press briefing. He said that “spreading such sensationalism for shoring up the sale of a book” cannot be approved.
Asked whether the Congress could file a defamation case against Natwar Singh, Singhvi said: “let us see but added nothing like this has been decided as yet.”Pressed further, he said: “Political issues are dealt politically and legal issues are dealt legally.”
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said Sonia Gandhi does not have a reply to the issues raised by Natwar Singh. Hussain also attacked Rahul Gandhi saying: “He says I want to live for the country, so now he should tell that if a soldier gets scared then who will protect our country. The chair of Prime Minister is a crown of thorns, your life is at stake there but to serve the country’s people you accept it.”
In the eye of a stormIJ
“I will write my own book and then you will come to know everything...The only way the truth will come out is if I write...I am serious about it and I will be writing,” Sonia said talking to reporters in Parliament House
Sonia received support from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who refuted allegations that the UPA Government sent files to 10 Janpath for approval
The Congress slammed Natwar Singh over the remarks alleging that they were a marketing stunt and politically motivated
The BJP sought a reply from Sonia Gandhi on the issues raised by Natwar Singh in his book. The party also asked her to answer if she had gone to meet Singh to stop him from writing the book as claimed by the former Congress leader