BJP spokesperson C R Kesavan, writing on X as Gandhi’s memoir reached bookshops, alleged that Belonging: A Journey of Love sought to soften the record of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress. He suggested the book should instead have been called Whitewashing, an accusation reflecting the party’s wider challenge to Gandhi’s account of political events.
Kesavan asked whether Gandhi had expressed comparable grief over the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, the deaths of security personnel and the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. His questions followed her recollection that she cried while watching the demolition of the Ayodhya mosque on television on 6 December 1992.
The BJP spokesperson also criticised Gandhi’s treatment of the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. He accused her of attempting to justify restrictions on constitutional rights, although Gandhi had described the decision to impose the Emergency as a mistake in an interview accompanying the book’s publication.
Gandhi, chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, said the mosque’s destruction had convinced her that preserving the secular republic envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru would require a prolonged political struggle. She also acknowledged that complacency within Congress had contributed to the BJP’s rise.
Her comments appeared in an interview published ahead of the memoir’s release on 10 November. The book, published by HarperCollins, revisits her family life and experiences of political violence alongside her assessment of the country’s changing political landscape.
Kesavan’s intervention extended criticism voiced on Saturday by BJP Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi, who argued that Gandhi’s emotional recollection demonstrated Congress’s sympathy for the Mughal emperor Babur. Trivedi said the party had moved away from Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of Ram Rajya towards what he called Babar Raj.
That characterisation was Trivedi’s political allegation, rather than an admission or stated position of Congress. Gandhi’s remarks concerned the destruction of a mosque and its implications for secularism, not an endorsement of the Mughal ruler.
Trivedi also challenged the chronology of her account, asking which television channel she had watched on the day of the demolition. He questioned whether footage had been broadcast at the time Gandhi described, referring to news coverage and the political developments that followed the mosque’s destruction.
The questions did not establish that Gandhi’s recollection was false. Her interview did not identify a broadcaster or specify the hour at which she saw the images, leaving the precise circumstances of her viewing unspecified.
The BJP leader broadened his criticism by invoking the 2008 Batla House police encounter and Gandhi’s expressions of concern about Gaza. He accused Congress of selective sympathy and contrasted her position with the political symbolism used by her late husband, Rajiv Gandhi, during the 1989 election campaign.
Other BJP figures challenged Gandhi’s discussion of Congress’s historical record. Spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari accused her of seeking to rehabilitate Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, while party leader Tarun Chugh questioned whether the memoir adequately addressed controversies associated with earlier Congress governments.
Gandhi’s own account presented a different assessment. She said Indira Gandhi had been uncomfortable with the Emergency and maintained that Rajiv Gandhi had opposed its imposition. Those recollections did not alter the established fact that the Emergency suspended civil liberties and was imposed under Indira Gandhi’s government.
The Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindu activists mobilised around the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The destruction triggered communal violence and became central to a long-running dispute over the Ayodhya site.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the disputed land should be allotted for construction of a Ram temple and directed that an alternative five-acre plot be provided for a mosque. The court also described the demolition as an egregious violation of the rule of law.
The political exchanges have also focused on how leaders remember separate tragedies. Kesavan cited the 1984 killings and Mumbai attacks as tests of consistency, but did not provide evidence that Gandhi had never previously mourned those victims in public.
HarperCollins announced that Gandhi’s memoir would become available in bookshops on Tuesday morning, placing the publication at the centre of the renewed exchange between the governing BJP and the opposition Congress.
