Hans News Service Hyderabad

Telanganaunit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dismissed former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘A Journey of Love’, as a “pack of lies”, accusing her of attempting to whitewash the historical blunders and political misdeeds of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress party.

In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, BJP State Chief Spokesperson and Media In-charge NV Subash ridiculed Sonia Gandhi’s reported claim that she broke down while watching the demolition of the Babri Masjid live on television.

“One would like to know which television channel telecast the demolition live, particularly when satellite television broadcasting was not yet widely established in India,” he questioned, describing her emotional recollection as little more than “crocodile tears” and an attempt to serve up sugar-coated versions of history.

Subash alleged that as the Congress rapidly lost relevance in national politics, Sonia Gandhi was now trying to rewrite history and distance herself from the controversial decisions and failures of her party and family.

Her claim that she had warned or opposed her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to overturn the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case, he said, raised serious questions about the credibility of her recollections.

He also questioned her silence on several controversial episodes involving the Congress, including the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the alleged remarks by party leaders against an elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and former President Pranab Mukherjee, who had himself been a senior Congress leader. Subash further asked Sonia Gandhi to clarify reports of her alleged emotional reaction during the Batla House encounter, questioning the selective nature of her recollections.

Pointing to what he described as glaring chronological inaccuracies in the memoir, Subash said it places the rise of Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement in 2012. In contrast, the nationwide agitation gained massive momentum and peaked in 2011. He said the discrepancy was among several other historical and chronological inconsistencies concerning important political personalities and events during Sonia Gandhi’s decades in public life.

“Memoirs are expected to offer an honest account of history, not selective recollections designed to protect political legacies.