BJP accuses Sonia Gandhi of rewriting India’s history
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TimesLIVE
The Bharatiya Janata Party accuses Sonia Gandhi of presenting the historical mistakes of the Congress party favourably in her memoir. The accusation comes after the book’s release and ahead of key regional elections, while Congress accuses the BJP of politicising the book, according to the Sunday Times.
The BJP, India’s ruling party, accuses Sonia Gandhi, a Congress leader, of downplaying in her memoir the violence and historical mistakes associated with her political family. BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan says the book seeks to “gloss over” the historical failings of the Nehru-Gandhi family and Congress, according to TimesLIVE.
Kesavan cites in particular the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which killed nearly 3,000 people after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards. In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi describes the violence as a “tragic and shameful” chapter, accuses some officials of turning a blind eye to or fuelling the violence, and defends her husband Rajiv Gandhi against accusations of complicity, while acknowledging failures in governance and delays in justice, reports TimesLIVE.
The BJP spokesperson also accuses Sonia Gandhi of seeking to “normalise and justify” the state of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975. The period lasted 21 months, with civil liberties suspended, press censorship and opposition leaders imprisoned, according to TimesLIVE. Congress, for its part, accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP of seeking to create a spectacle around the book and give it a political dimension.
The memoir, titled Belonging, was released on Tuesday. It traces Sonia Gandhi’s journey from her studies in England, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, to her integration into the Nehru-Gandhi political family, which has produced three prime ministers of India. Sonia Gandhi, 79, had declined the post of prime minister in 2004, while her family continues to control Congress, which was in power for nearly 55 years cumulatively since India’s independence in 1947, reports TimesLIVE.
