Explainers
Sonia Gandhi's memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love has triggered a full-blown BJP vs Congress war over the 1975 Emergency.
In her book, Sonia Gandhi calls the Emergency a mistake, suggests Indira Gandhi eventually shared that view, and implies much of the damage could have been prevented if Sanjay Gandhi had been kept in check.
BJP National Spokesperson C R Kesavan has hit back hard, saying the book should have been titled Whitewashing instead of Belonging. He accuses Sonia Gandhi of sugar-coating historical wrongs, camouflaging the Congress party's past, and attempting to justify a period when the Constitution was undermined and fundamental rights were suspended.
Kesavan also raised the Babri Masjid issue vs 1984 anti-Sikh violence, Batla House encounter remarks, the UPA response to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and said nearly 55 years of Congress rule damaged Indian democracy, crediting PM Narendra Modi with correcting those wrongs.
Watch TNIE's breakdown of what Sonia Gandhi wrote, why the BJP is calling it a whitewash, and how the Congress is defending its legacy.
