The battle lines were drawn. Both sides had come prepared. The BJP was ready to take aim and fire. The Congress knew the BJP would be gunning for Sonia Gandhi, so it closed ranks around her in a protective shield.
The television news anchors? They used the BJP’s attacks to question the Congress and tried to appear knowledgeable about a book most of them hadn’t read.
All this and more fighting over Belonging, Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, released on 10 November. On TV, in the newspapers, it was a fight to the finish — “Sonia’s book triggers political war of words,” wrote Hindustan Times in its headline.
Navbharat Times called it a “Siyasi Toofan” (political storm), which is rather more accurate.
Rat-a-tat-tat went the BJP spokespersons, accusing Sonia of “whitewashing” the facts on Operation Blue Star, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Shah Bano, Bofors and Babri Masjid, and even her claim to have renounced the prime minister’s position after the 2004 general elections.
The Congress sat back on its heels and, faced with the BJP’s hits on Sonia’s misses in her memoir, shifted the focus to the personal. Spokesperson after spokesperson on TV recounted the tragic events in Sonia’s life and how she steeled herself in the face of all adversities.
It was a fight between the political and the personal. Which side won? Nobody is quite sure.
“With family or facts?” asked Times Now. Its anchor followed up: “Is she (Sonia) holding the Congress and BJP to the same standards?”
On NDTV, journalist Prabhu Chawla insisted Belonging was totally political — a manifesto for the Congress.
Journalist Neerja Chowdhury, also on NDTV, said the personal content was “evocative” but the political parts of the book were like a “cut and paste job” or a press statement.
In the other corner was India Today’s news anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, who claimed he was “one of the few anchors who had read the 526-page book”.
Sardesai’s review on TV? “It isn’t a tell-all biography… more of a personal memoir where the personal seems to matter more, at times, than the political,” he said.
Got that?
Let’s leave the last word to The Times of India, which did a neat balancing act in its editorial “Her story, history”.
“We can think of the autobiography as another form of accountability. Whether or not it is enjoyed with a pinch of salt, depends on the reader,” it concluded.
Also Read: There are 3 different books in Sonia Gandhi’s memoir
Bofors to Bachchans & business
Did the news media give you a sense of Belonging? Some did a better job than others.
On India Today, Sardesai and other anchors gave you the highlights of the book — political and personal — and pointed out topics or people Sonia ignored: Quattrocchi of Bofors fame for one, and the split with the Bachchans for another.
Similarly, the Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar listed 15 untold stories it found in the book: “Pain of losing son, Pranab wanting to be PM… everything,” read its headline.
The Economic Times did the same in “Made it a point to speak frankly to each other” but said it with neat drawings of Maneka Gandhi, Sonia, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi.
Some newspapers picked out the most politically controversial parts of the memoir — former president Pranab Mukherjee’s ambition, for example.
Others picked out recollections most likely to catch the reader’s eye.
Thus, Rajasthan Patrika’s page 1 story on Belonging was Maneka Gandhi’s break with former prime minister Indira Gandhi. In “Maneka cosying up to opponents, Indira Gandhi said don’t do it, leave the house”, it recounted the events that led Sanjay Gandhi’s wife to leave the PM’s house — never to return.
The financial newspaper Business Standard focused on an angle other news media had skipped. “Businesses were dissatisfied with UPA 2: Sonia in memoir,” read its headline on Tuesday.
The report said Sonia believed big business threw its “weight” behind the BJP. She wrote that corporate houses owned most of the mainstream media and that “their management consistently gave the advantage to our opponents in shaping public opinion”.
For its page 1 report, The Times of India chose the personal over the political. In “For the first time, Sonia confirms battle with cancer in memoirs”, the paper reported on her 2010 breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent pancreatic cancer scare.
Also Read: Sonia Gandhi memoir is radical for what she refuses, not for what it reveals
Eye of the storm
Television news chose to emphasise the political elements in the book. No surprise. That’s what generates the controversies that lead to prime-time shout-outs by anchors and participants.
Sonia Gandhi’s recollection of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, in which she absolved former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of responsibility, topped the agenda of TV debates. Punjab’s assembly elections are due early next year, so it’s particularly topical.
Had she sanitised past events with “pen and Harpic”, wondered India Today anchor Gaurav Sawant, paraphrasing panellist Anand Ranganathan’s charge to Sanjay Jha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi featured in News18 India’s debate. The TV channel’s anchor turned to pages 462-463, where Sonia Gandhi wrote that she’d had “practically no real contact” with the PM since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.
Times Now also picked up on Sonia’s comments about Modi. The Tuesday evening anchor Pramesh Roy was particularly annoyed by Sonia’s claim that when they meet, PM Modi “tends to look away, avoiding eye contact”.
At his sarcastic best and in poor taste, Roy asked if the PM ought to “wink at Sonia”.
Accused by one guest of “trivialising” what Sonia wrote, Roy brought up Rahul Gandhi’s wink in Parliament after he hugged Modi.
“Does Sonia want that kind of eye contact?” he inquired.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)