Gave up PM's post to become 'super PM': BJP on Sonia Gandhi's memoir

New Delhi: In fresh criticism of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's memoir, the BJP on Wednesday said she decided to make the "super sacrifice" of not taking up prime ministership only to become a "super PM".

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi also rejected Gandhi's claim in her memoir, "Belonging: A Journey of Love", that her husband Rajiv Gandhi was against the Emergency.

In her memoir released on Tuesday, Gandhi writes about how she went from completely rejecting the idea of taking up prime ministership to a feeble "theek hai" when alliance colleagues pressed her to take the job only to finally say a firm, categorical no.

Asked about Gandhi sharing her inner turmoil before turning down the prime minister's post in 2004, Trivedi quipped, "What a super sacrifice it was that she became super PM leaving the PM's post."

Gandhi left the PM's post but took up a Cabinet rank for being chairperson of the National Advisory Committee during the Congress-led UPA rule, he said.

"You will not find such an example of sacrifice anywhere in the world where a Cabinet rank is taken up leaving the PM's post. National Advisory Committee chairperson, a Cabinet rank that too with office of profit, meaning secured a profitable Cabinet rank," he said.

"And when a controversy erupted, Sonia Gandhi had to resign. Before she could return after the election, the Manmohan Singh government, which was running under her leadership, changed the rules and put the NAC chairman's post out of the office of profit," the BJP leader said.

Trivedi further slammed Gandhi for blaming her brother-in-law Sanjay Gandhi for the imposition of the Emergency and claiming that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was against it.

He said Rajiv Gandhi had supported the Emergency on various occasions.

On the former Congress president's account of the fallout with Sanjay Gandhi's wife Maneka Gandhi, Trivedi said it appears more like a story of "deep-seated animosity" between a "desi devrani" and a "videshi jethani" than "Emergency ki kahani" with the kind of "blame-game" seen in her memoir.

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