BJP labels Sonia Gandhi memoir whitewashing over Emergency remarks

The Bharatiya Janata Party has criticised former Congress president Sonia Gandhi over her newly released memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. BJP national spokesperson C R Kesavan said the book should instead have been titled Whitewashing because its motive appears to be sugar-coating historical wrongs committed by the Nehru-Gandhi family.

The criticism came on the day the memoir was released. In the book Gandhi described the Emergency imposed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 as a mistake and said she believed her mother-in-law eventually reached the same conclusion.

“Sonia Gandhi could have titled her memoir as Whitewashing instead of Belonging, because the motive of this book appears to be sugar coating the historical wrongs perpetrated by the Nehru Gandhi family.”

Gandhi also wrote that keeping her husband Rajiv Gandhi's brother Sanjay Gandhi in check could have prevented much of the damage that followed the imposition of the Emergency. Kesavan dismissed this account, accusing her of trying to justify and normalise the Emergency instead of acknowledging the suspension of fundamental rights and press restrictions.

The BJP leader questioned Gandhi's references to the Babri Masjid demolition and accused her of selective concern over communal violence. He asked whether she shed tears when gurdwaras were targeted and thousands of innocent people were killed during the 1984 Sikh massacre under Congress rule.

Kesavan also referred to the 2008 Batla House encounter and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, asking whether Gandhi wept for martyred CRPF personnel and why the Congress-led UPA government failed to retaliate after the attacks.

He said the Emergency murdered the Constitution and that the Congress regime at the Centre for nearly 55 years inflicted unfathomable damage on Indian polity and democracy.