General elections 2014: Sanjaya Baru's book cheap fiction, says Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today dismissed as "cheap fiction" the claims made in a book written by Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to PM, that Sonia Gandhi was the remote control in UPA Government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh played a second fiddle to her.

The party also questioned the timing for the release of the book in the midst of the Lok Sabha polls.

"They ( BJP) remain remote controlled from Nagpur (RSS headquarters). In UPA, it was the first ideal division of labour, perfect harmonious work for 10 long years," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.

Hitting out at Baru, he accused the former media advisor of "betrayal, greed, ambition and sensationalism" and dismissed his book as a "work of fiction and gossip and is not even good fiction either."

Insisting that the document was most subjective as it is based on personal opinion and not on facts, Singhvi said the jacket cover of the book itself says "it is packed with political gossip" that is what it is.

Singhvi lashed out at BJP for making political capital out of the book, saying it was "hard to digest" for the opposition party that the UPA coalition continued for two full terms despite its doomsday projections.

BJP has used the book to target Congress, saying it has proven true its charge of dual power centre involving Gandhi and Singh in which she had the final word.

The Congress spokesman also more than suggested that Baru was in touch with several BJP leaders in the last few years about which he has not written a word in the book.

He especially faulted Baru for the "fantastic" timing for the release of the book in the midst of Lok Sabha polls.

"People of standard does not do hatchet job of their former employers. It shows the denial of re-employment has traumatised the author. It unfortunately also shows severe character flaws, a serious issue of propriety and ethics," Singhvi said.

The Congress spokesman was harsh on Baru over the timing of the release of the book.

"The timing is fantastic. You are recording the history of four years after six years, bang in the middle of polls. The timing can only be attributed to political motives.

"Greed, commercial profit, betrayal, ambition and sensationalism all coalesced into a very very unsavoury cocktail," Singhvi said.

Another Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala, speaking separately, said "Baru's current proximity to a strategist of Narendra Modi is well known. Timing of his allegations establish whose political agenda he is seeking to serve".

"Congress decisively rejects this cheap fiction lock, stock and barrel," he said.