New Delhi : Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain, on Tuesday, accused veteran Congress leader Sonia Gandhi of shedding “crocodile tears” over the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, to “attract Muslim vote bank”. This comes amid a row over Sonia Gandhi’s memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, released earlier in the day. In a self-made video, Surendra Jain said: “The entire world felt a sense of pride when the Babri structure, which symbolised the alleged brutality of the foreign invader Babur, was demolished. But Sonia Gandhi was shedding tears. She herself wrote this in her book.” “Sonia Gandhi also wept when brave Delhi Police officers killed terrorists responsible for bomb blasts in Delhi during an encounter. She repeatedly shed ‘crocodile tears’ to attract the Muslim vote bank,” he remarked.

“Did Sonia Gandhi shed tears when Inspector Mohan Sharma was killed by terrorists during the Batla House encounter?” he asked. The VHP leader further questioned whether the Congress leader reacted when more than 300 Hindu temples were allegedly destroyed in the Kashmir Valley, or when hundreds of Hindus were massacred there. Referring to the atrocities against Hindus in the valley, Jain claimed: “She didn’t even react to these issues, forget getting emotional.” Further, Jain alleged that thousands of Sikhs were massacred in 1984 “under orders from Sonia Gandhi’s husband, former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi”. “Did she shed tears then or oppose her husband?” he asked. He added: “When saints were peacefully protesting for ‘protection of cows’ in Delhi, your (Sonia Gandhi’s) mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, opened fire on them, scores of saints were killed. You were silent on that, too.”

Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack, he said: “Hindu tourists were identified by their religion and then shot dead. Why did you (Sonia Gandhi) not express similar grief over that incident?” Surendra Jain claimed that the Hindu society is hurt not only by Sonia Gandhi’s remarks but also by statements made by members of her party — what he described as the “secular” camp. He alleged that these groups repeatedly “hurt Hindu sentiments and have a history of supporting anti-national terrorists”. Referring to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s recent remark, he said: “Your party leader has made a comparison between Eid and Diwali, describing Eid as a pure festival that does not contribute to pollution, unlike Diwali. Till when will you keep hurting Hindu sentiments?” Moreover, Jain urged Sonia Gandhi to apologise for her statements and for those made by her associates, warning that otherwise the people of the country would not forgive her.

New Delhi : Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi recalled she had “begged” her husband Rajiv Gandhi not to enter politics, but when it came to her son Rahul Gandhi, she “did not resist it”, she wrote in her memoir ‘”Belonging: A Journey Of Love”. In her book, which hit stands worldwide on Tuesday, Gandhi wrote that “Rahul had a long-standing interest in politics” and respected his father, Rajiv Gandhi, for the courage “with which he had soldiered on despite the looming threat”, NDTV reported. “Two decades earlier, I had begged Rajiv not to enter politics, not to throw himself and all of us into that menacing world. Now, it was my son’s turn, and this time I did not resist it. Rahul had foreseen his father’s end; he had fought with him over it. Yet he carried within him a deep kinship with his father’s values and respect for the courage with which he had soldiered on despite the looming threat,” she wrote.

The senior Congress leader recalled that both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had an “enduring relationship” with the Amethi constituency, the family’s stronghold, in Uttar Pradesh. She mentioned that Rajiv Gandhi had taken Rahul Gandhi to Amethi a number of times as a schoolboy, and later, to make him aware of the hard reality of rural life. Regarding her daughter, Sonia Gandhi said that Priyanka Gandhi had been in Amethi through all of her elections, “endearing herself to party workers and people”. “But her priority was bringing up her young children and working on a postgraduate diploma in Buddhist studies.

Rahul, whenever he came back to India, would accompany me or his sister to Amethi, and they were both familiar faces in the constituency. It was during those visits, when he finally returned to India, that Rahul found himself drawn into working there as a representative of the people,” she wrote. Further, she mentioned that the subject of Rahul Gandhi’s MPhil in Cambridge was Development Studies, and he followed political events in India closely even while employed abroad. “The party had been strongly urging him to take on an active role, which would mean for him a complete change of life; he would become a public figure, watched and judged at every step,” wrote Sonia Gandhi, adding that he arrived at the decision after “discussions with Priyanka and me and some deep thinking on his part”.

In March 2004, Rahul Gandhi had said he would contest from Amethi, with his mother moving to neighbouring Rae Bareli. She proudly recalled that Rahul Gandhi had “won handsomely” in his first election, and “embarked enthusiastically on his new responsibility, bringing businesses and industries into rural Amethi, as Rajiv had done”. Priyanka, proving herself a “capable manager”, started self-help groups (SHGs) in Amethi, encouraging women to support one another in becoming agents of change, wrote the veteran Congress leader. “The groups had started small but were full of promise, and with Rahul’s involvement, the Amethi SHG became the largest in northern India. He also set up a much-needed eye hospital, whose branches then spread to Lucknow and Haryana.”

New Delhi : Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, reflecting on her equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also her “biggest” political adversary, in her biography, said that there has been “no real contact with him”. “Narendra Damodardas Modi has been the Prime Minister of India for more than twelve years as of this writing and is now in his third term in office. To this day, I’ve had practically no real contact with him,” the former Congress President penned in the book. The Congress leader goes on to say that they have met on multiple occasions, greeting each other with a formal “namaste”, but the cordiality and bonhomie that existed in the political milieu all along remained missing among them because “he tends to look away”. The disclosures on their “uneasy” relationship came in “Belonging: A Journey of Love”, Gandhi’s 544-page memoir, which hit the shelves on Tuesday. The book has been published by HarperCollins India.

“We meet at semi-official gatherings — for instance, at the end of every Parliament session. It’s a very small room, and usually many people are present, but when he comes face-to-face with me, we greet each other with a formal namaste. This is different from the past, when leaders across party divides would treat one another with cordiality. He tends to look away, avoiding eye contact,” she wrote. Sonia Gandhi also highlights in the book that she and PM Modi hail from different ideological worlds, and the latter’s idea of India was very different from hers. “Apart from such brief exchanges, we have never really conversed, though we’ve exchanged formal birthday and New Year greetings over the years,” she further wrote. She has also documented the incidents when the Prime Minister enquired about her health after her discharge from hospital.

The book recalling one such moment says, PM Modi asked: “Theek hain aap? (Are you alright?)”, to which she replied, “Ji, ab main theek hoon, shukriya (Yes, thank you… I am okay now)”. In her memoir, the veteran Congress leader has also objected to name-calling and coarse language used by no less than the serving Prime Minister against India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, adding that this was the result of his “conditioning” by the RSS – BJP’s ideological parent. Drawing a sharp contrast in their style of functioning, she says that he was “fighting for his vision of India, and I for mine: an India against hegemony, an India that stands for inclusiveness, secularism, and social justice.” The memoirs by Sonia Gandhi, giving insight on many political issues, are set to create political ripple and uproar. The BJP has already mounted scathing criticism, calling it an attempt to “whitewash the history”.