Sonia Gandhi Memoir Interviews: 12 Years Harmed India, BJP Hits Back
The Congress leader spoke on the Emergency, the Babri demolition and her party's failings before her book 'Belonging' appears; the BJP answered within hours.
Image: World Economic Forum / Wikimedia Commons (file photo)
Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, said in interviews reported on Saturday, 7 November, that the past 12 years have done major harm to India’s social fabric, democracy and institutions. She spoke ahead of the launch of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, according to PTI. BJP leaders Tarun Chugh and Pradeep Bhandari replied the same day.
Emergency, Babri and Congress’s Own Lapses
Gandhi said restoring those institutions would take time even after the government changes, PTI reported. On the Emergency, she said it was carried out constitutionally, but acknowledged that democratic rights were curtailed and habeas corpus was suspended.
Times Now Navbharat reported that she recalled crying as she watched the Babri Masjid being demolished on television in December 1992, and realised India would have to fight a long battle to protect its secular character. The same report quotes her as saying Congress had been “very careless” and had contributed, to some extent, to the rise of the BJP’s Hindutva politics.
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Chugh and Bhandari Reply
Chugh, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, told PTI Videos: “If you take off your Italian lenses, you will see India clearly.” He also asked Gandhi to write about corruption scams, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Bhopal gas tragedy.
BJP spokesperson Bhandari wrote on X: “She is trying to project Indira Gandhi as victim, but her PR exercise cannot hide the truth.” Times Now Navbharat reported that he also accused Congress of vote-bank politics.
Book Release Date Not Yet Reported
The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by kar sevaks on 6 December 1992, and riots followed across the country. The Ram temple was inaugurated at the same site in January 2024. Gandhi’s remarks add to the Congress line set out at the INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan, which IPB News covered in What Kharge, Tejashwi, Akhilesh and Left Leaders Said. More Congress stories are under the Congress tag.
The reports seen by IPB News do not give a release date for the book, and they differ on which outlet carried the interview.
Source: Based on reporting by Daily Excelsior (PTI), Times Now Navbharat and Sangbad Pratidin.
Image: World Economic Forum / Wikimedia Commons (file photo).
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