Sonia Gandhi memoir: Book courts Babri vote bank, papers over Bofors, family wrongs, says BJP

Criticising Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, the BJP on Tuesday said the “underlying thinking throughout the book revolves around the Babri (Masjid) vote bank”.

Accusing her of trying to “justify” the Emergency, being “silent” on the Bofors scam, and making “claims completely contrary to the actual facts” on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the party said the book seeks to “sugar-coat the historical wrongs perpetrated by the Nehru-Gandhi family”.

“Sonia Gandhi’s book has made it clear that the underlying thinking throughout the book revolves around the Babri vote bank. She has revealed that vote-bank politics associated with Babri is deeply rooted in her thinking,” said BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari.

“She says she cried for Babri Masjid. Did Sonia Gandhi shed even a drop of tear when gurudwaras were targeted and thousands of innocent people were killed during the 1984 Sikh massacre that happened during the Congress rule?Sonia Gandhi cried profusely for the Batla House terrorists, but did she weep for the brave CRPF jawans who were martyred in the line of duty protecting our nation and people,” BJP’s national spokesperson C R Kesavan said in a post on X.

In an interview to The Guardian before the release of her book, Gandhi had recalled crying as she watched the Babri Masjid demolition on television on December 6, 1992.

“The Bofors scam is missing from the book. The country witnessed corruption in the Bofors scam, but the Gandhi-Vadra family remains silent on it. Vote-bank politics and corruption are habits of the Gandhi-Vadra family, and they will lose again in 2029,” Bhandari said.

“Sonia Gandhi could have titled her memoir as ‘Whitewashing’ instead of ‘Belonging’, because the motive of this book appears to be to sugar-coat the historical wrongs perpetrated by the Nehru-Gandhi family and camouflage the cardinal sins committed by the Congress party,” Kesavan said, accusing her of trying to “justify and normalise the notorious Emergency”.

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BJP leader H S Phoolka questioned Gandhi’s account of the anti-Sikh riots. “She claims that on the night of October 31, Rajiv Gandhi asked Army Chief General (A S) Vaidya to call in the Army. However, General Vaidya supposedly decided on his own that the Army personnel stationed around Delhi were Sikhs and that Sikh troops should not be called in. She says that the Army was instead summoned from distant locations such as Dehradun, which delayed its deployment. These claims are completely contrary to the actual facts,” he said.

Hitting back at the BJP, Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Shukla said the party was trying to give the book a “political spin”. “She is perhaps the first person in the family after (Jawaharlal) Nehru ji who has written an autobiography. She has penned down all her thoughts. So, I think people should respect her thoughts, respect the sentiments that she has expressed. This should not be turned into a controversy,” he said.

“The BJP is trying to give this a political spin. What is the need for this? I saw a statement by a BJP spokesperson who asked if Babar lives in her heart. When Babri Masjid was demolished, Atal ji had criticised it. Did Babar live in his heart? Advani ji had called it a grave mistake. Did Babar live in his heart? Jaswant Singh strongly condemned it. Did Babar live in his heart? A few BJP spokespersons know neither history nor background,” said Shukla.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Shaina NC said: “You speak of belonging, we ask who is this belonging for? In 1991, 1984 and 2004, you made the country cry, and now you speak of belonging. Is this belonging about votes? The way you rejected the chair back then, and the way you presented yourself thereafter, was portrayed as an act of sacrifice and penance. We would like answers to several questions. As far as the Ram Temple, Article 370 and Hindutva are concerned, these are not achieved by crying. Your actions are what establish you as a leader.”

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Congress MP Sonia Gandhi with her newly released memoir, “Belonging: A Journey of Love”. (PTI Photo)

On Gandhi’s account of her decision to not become the Prime Minister in 2004, JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said: “This is a controversial matter as well… what we know is that Mulayam Singh Yadav had refused to support her. Otherwise, there was an attempt to become the PM. But she could not become. It is a different matter what she did or did not do.”

The AAP, which is up against the Congress in the Punjab elections next year, also raised questions. “Sonia Gandhi has probably now come to realise that deploying the Army into the Golden Temple, an operation that involved the use of cannons and artillery, coupled with the open massacre of Sikhs on the streets of Delhi, casts serious doubt on the Congress party’s secular credentials,” said AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj.

“Had Indira Gandhi herself expressed such remorse at the time, it would have carried far greater significance. This sentiment, coming from Sonia Gandhi, is merely hearsay — it cannot be independently verified. It should be viewed as a political statement, tailored to the current political climate,” Bharadwaj said.