List of Banned Books in India
‘This is not just a book about Sonia. It starts with Motilal Nehru, and in 600 pages, covers the Gandhi family’
- Javier Moro
A fictionalised account of Sonia Gandhi's life by Spanish author Javier Moro which could not be published in India after Congress objected to its contents a few years ago has finally hit book stores in the country.
The book, first published in Spanish with the title 'El Sari Rojo' in 2008, had created a controversy with the Congress chief's lawyers then describing it as containing "untruths, half truths, falsehoods and defamatory statements" and serving Moro with a legal notice in 2010.
According to the publishers, the 455-page book, priced at Rs 395, is an "Indianised version" of the original work.
Moro, whose earlier book "Pasion India" has been translated into 17 languages, traces the journey of Sonia with information sourced from close friends and colleagues.
"From her idyllic childhood to her passionate love affair and from her days as a docile daughter-in-law to her current status of being the only Indian politician to have refused prime ministership, 'The Red Sari' tells the story of an extraordinary woman whose dreams of home, hearth and anonymous living were struck down by the hands of fate," the book's blurb says.
The book examines the lives of the Nehru-Gandhi family and is set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War, the Emergency, Operation Blue Star and other events that have shaped modern Indian history.
From rural Italy to rule over a billion people, thats how author describes Sonia Gandhi. With no access to Sonia and her family and hence no permission writer has to call this book as Fictionalized Biography. Calling Sonia Gandhi's Lawyer Abhishek Singhvi as a manipulative man, he puts the blame on the lawyer for the delay in Publishing this book in India. According to UK 'Telegraph', she had taken strong exception to her portrayal in 'The Red Sari' as a snob who wanted to leave India following her husband's 1991 assassination. The book also portrays her as a central figure in Indira Gandhi's 1975 imposition of emergency rule. In the book, Moro writes that "Sonia did not understand why she had to learn a language only spoken by the servants."
While I am still reading the book and preparing myself to write a review. I would suggest you to go ahead and buy the book depending on what I have read till now
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