NEW DELHI: A fictional account of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi's life by a Spanish author has finally arrived in the country's stores, even as the party is reportedly mulling legal action if it finds the contents "objectionable".
The book "Red Sari" by Javier Moro could not be released in India when the Congress was in power.
The Congress said it would take legal action, if the contents of the book were found objectionable.
"Anybody can publish anything subject to legal recourse. He must have chosen not to publish for his own commercial and personal reasons. Then had he published it, action would have been taken, if necessary after reading the book. Today if he publishes it same rules apply. We can't comment let's wait to see his book, if there is something objectionable, we reserve our all rights," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi in New Delhi.
The Congress had served a legal notice to Moro in 2010, describing it as containing "untruths, half truths, falsehoods and defamatory statements" after his work was published in Spanish with the title 'El Sari Rojo' in 2008.
India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party refused to comment on it.
"After May 2014 the publishers in fact had written a letter to lawyers of Gandhi, seeking consent for the publishing of the book and that is reason, I believe, the book is going to be published. So we are not a stake holder in the process and we would best avoid any comment on it," said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
The book traces Sonia's journey with information sourced from close friends and colleagues from her idyllic childhood to her passionate love affair with late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and chief of the Congress party.
A leader of the Communist Party of India, Atul Anjan, found nothing wrong with the publication of the book.
"Sonia Gandhi is neither a god nor a goddess. She is not a deity. People religious sentiments would not be hurt due to the publication of the book," said Anjan.
The book details lives of the Nehru-Gandhi family while dealing with Bangladesh war in 1971, the Emergency in 1975 and other events that have shaped modern Indian history.