JAMMU, Nov 11: Senior BJP leader and former Minister Bali Bhagat launched a scathing attack on Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi over her newly released memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, accusing the Nehru-Gandhi family of attempting to whitewash its controversial political legacy and evade accountability for some of the darkest chapters in India’s history.
Reacting to book, Bhagat said the book would have been more appropriately titled Whitewashing than Belonging, as it appeared to selectively portray history while glossing over the grave mistakes, controversies and failures of Congress rule.
Bhagat said, “Sonia Gandhi cannot rewrite India’s history through a memoir. The people of this country have not forgotten the Emergency, when democracy was strangled, fundamental rights were suspended, opposition leaders were jailed and the press was silenced. Calling it a mistake is not accountability. The nation deserves an unconditional acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Indian democracy.”
Questioning the memoir’s account of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, Bhagat said the suffering of thousands of innocent Sikhs and their families could never be erased through selective explanations or historical narratives. He questioned the attempt to absolve the Congress leadership of responsibility and demanded an honest account of the events and the delayed deployment of the Army in Delhi.
He further questioned Sonia Gandhi’s selective expression of grief over the Babri Masjid demolition, asking why similar anguish was not reflected with equal force for the victims of the 1984 violence, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and the families of security personnel who sacrificed their lives fighting terrorism.
Bhagat also questioned the conspicuous absence of the Bofors controversy from the discussion of Congress’s political legacy, besides recalling the 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and coal allocation controversies during the UPA regime.
“Congress has no moral authority to lecture the country on transparency, democracy and constitutional values while conveniently avoiding questions about its own record. From the Emergency to corruption controversies, the Gandhi family must answer rather than seek sympathy through carefully curated narratives,” he asserted.
Taking aim at dynastic politics, Bhagat said India was a democracy, not the private property of one political family. He added that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country had witnessed a decisive emphasis on national security, development, transparency and accountable governance.
Concluding, Bhagat said, “No memoir can wash away historical wrongs, no public relations exercise can erase the suffering of victims, and no political dynasty can claim ownership of India’s history. Sonia Gandhi may write her version, but the people of India have their own memory. Congress must answer for its past instead of attempting to whitewash it.”