{"id":45236,"date":"2015-05-17T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T05:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=45236"},"modified":"2015-05-18T17:39:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T12:09:06","slug":"books-that-whipped-up-political-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/politics\/books-that-whipped-up-political-controversy","title":{"rendered":"Books That Whipped Up Political Controversies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Books<\/a><\/p>\n

What the author calls an insight, the world calls it an insinuation. It is the inherent conflict between the \u2018Right to Freedom of Expression\u2019 and the Right to Reputation that has led to the untimely death of several books. While some books claimed to be a first-hand account of what happens in power corridors, some have been whistle-blowers in disguise of \u2018earnest research\u2019. The potential of these books to hurt and incense the political class of India indicates that the people of the country, like Shakespeare, don\u2019t appreciate anyone \u201cwho filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of books that didn\u2019t rub off too well with the readers:<\/p>\n

The Accidental Prime Minister <\/strong><\/a>
\nAuthor: Sanjaya Baru<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manmohan Singh\u2019s former media advisor was accused of creating a \u2018baseless\u2019 and \u2018mischievous\u2019 work of fiction that belittled the erstwhile PM\u2019s capability of reining in his cabinet ministers. PM\u2019s daughter accused Baru of backstabbing her father. Many questioned the timing of the book\u2019s release ahead of the 2014 General Elections. Baru\u2019s claim that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had the final say on crucial government decisions and she decided key appointments to the Cabinet and the PMO was seen as a reiteration of the widely held belief that Singh was a puppet Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths<\/strong>
\nAuthor: P C Parakh<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ex- Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh\u2019s book, which claimed giving insight into the entrails of PMO and Coal Ministry, was looked upon by many as an effort towards spoiling chances of UPA in the general election. Released in the wake of Sanjaya Baru\u2019s launch of \u2018The Accidental Prime Minister\u2019, the book was vocal in its portrayal of Manmohan Singh as helpless. According to the author, the UPA government could have avoided coal scam if the Prime Minister had \u201cused his authority\u201d and pushed for reforms.<\/p>\n

The Red Sari<\/strong>
\nAuthor: Javier Moro<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Manmohan Singh, it was Sonia Gandhi\u2019s turn to be in the eye of storm when the Spanish writer came up with a controversial biography of the Congress President. When the Congress-led UPA government was in power in 2010, it didn\u2019t allow the release of the English version of the book. According to a report, the “dramatised biography” faced threats of lawsuits from the members of the Congress. Sonia Gandhi was reportedly hurt by the book\u2019s claim that she was a snob and wanted to leave the country after her husband was assassinated. Her lawyers alleged that the book was full of \u201cfalsehoods, defamatory statements, completely imaginary and invented conversations”.<\/p>\n

Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence<\/strong>
\nAuthor: Jaswant Singh<\/strong><\/p>\n

He had never thought that his views on Pakistan\u2019s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah would cost him a party membership. Instead of adhering to the common notion that Jinnah was the villain and demonising him for the partition of India, the expelled leader of the BJP praised him as a \u2018self-made\u2019 man and likened him to Mahatma Gandhi. Singh didn\u2019t stop there. He held Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s centralised policy responsible for the partition. In fact, Gujarat banned his book for stating that Sardar Vallabhai Patel, considered the architect of the modern India, was “far off the mark” with his projections about the future of India.<\/p>\n

The Moor\u2019s Last Sigh<\/strong>
\nAuthor: Salman Rushdie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Salman Rushdie\u2019s novel courted controversy mainly because of the character that was akin to Bal Thackeray, the then Shiv Sena leader. What was the final nail in the coffin was the naming of the character of a dog after India\u2019s first Prime Minister. The book was banned by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government before it was revoked in 1996. However, the owners of the book stores feared political backlash and let the book languish in uncertain corners.<\/p>\n

The Descent of Air India<\/strong>
\nAuthor: Jitendra Bhargava<\/strong><\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t enough books with India\u2019s national carrier being the protagonist. \u2018The Descent of Air India\u2019 could have been one of the formidable entrants had it not been marred by controversy. A tell-all book by Jitendra Bhargava \u2013 a former executive director of Air India \u2013 is believed to contain startling revelations on how misfortune befell Air India because of the ex-Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. The book, which was withdrawn by Bloomsbury, has several mentions of how the airline was \u2018systematically mismanaged\u2019 over the years by ones at the helm of affairs.<\/p>\n

One Life is Not Enough<\/strong>
\nAuthor: Natwar Singh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet another insider\u2019s autobiography kicked up a storm when former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh\u2019s book \u2018One Life is Not Enough\u2019 claimed that Sonia Gandhi refused to accept the prime ministerial role in 2004 at Rahul Gandhi’s insistence. This piece of information was among other never-heard-before facts on incidents Singh was privy to.<\/p>\n

Recommended Read<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am Malala \u2013 A Book Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Book Review: Tendulkar Limits it to Himself in \u2018Playing it My Way\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What the author calls an insight, the world calls it an insinuation. It is the inherent conflict between the \u2018Right to Freedom of Expression\u2019 and the Right to Reputation that has led to the untimely death of several books. While some books claimed to be a first-hand account of what happens in power corridors, some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":45252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45236"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45285,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45236\/revisions\/45285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}