Red Sari - Why the Congress had this book banned ?

One would expect that a book, which has been banned for so many years, would have something incriminating, scandalous or defamatory. The Red Sari has none of it, not even any iota of masala.

Then why did the Congress party use all its might to get this book banned? Three reasons

1) Characterisation of the Gandhi family - For many a Congressmen , members of the first family are worshiped as Gods. Highlighting their fears, insecurities and portraying them as people of fairly average ability is nothing but blasphemous.

According to the book

• Indira takes decisions on serious national security issues based on the advice of her yoga guru Dhirendra Brahmachari.
• Sanjay and Maneka show a ton of intent and intensity but are arrogant and too ambitious.
• Rajiv as a PM comes across as inexperienced and indecisive
• Sonia is characterised as a helpless housewife who finds comfort in household chores. Like a bahu from Ekta Kapoor serials, she is shown as shedding tears every time they face a crisis.

2) Congress’s ‘Idea of India’ – The books conveys that a large part of the Congress party thinks that India is a nation of poor primitive people who need someone from the Gandhi family to redeem them. It is the burden of the Gandhi family to reform India and without the Gandhis, there will be no India left.

3) Power Protects - There is a belief within the Gandhi family that ‘power protects’. They believe that if they stay away from power, the security of the family will be at risk. Indira despite being down and out decides to fight against the Janata Govt to protect Sanjay, Rajiv decides to become PM as he would have access to the entire security machinery and finally Sonia joins politics to ensure that Congress stays relevant and her SPG protection is maintained.

Either the author does a very poor job in bringing to us the story of the Gandhi family or unlike nation builders, the Gandhis were mere mortals like you or me.

There is a lot of interesting trivia in the book which I will cover in my next blog..