HarperCollins to publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir ‘Belonging’ after Penguin backs out | India News
NEW DELHI: HarperCollins Publishers on Friday announced that it will publish former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s memoir after a major row led Penguin Random House India (PRHI) to withdraw from its publication.The memoir, titled “Belonging: A Journey of Love”, has triggered a major political uproar.HarperCollins India announced the publication of the book on Instagram, describing it as “one of the most anticipated political memoirs of our time, Belonging is a dramatic and deeply personal story of love, identity, duty, and belonging, and offers a rare insiders view of India’s journey.”Days earlier, the grand old party alleged that Penguin’s decision not to carry Sonia Gandhi’s memoir amounted to a “murder of democracy”. Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot claimed that “pressure was put on Penguin India to remove the portions related to Narendra Modi, RSS and China’s occupation of Indian territory during Modi’s rule”.
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
Penguin, for its part, issued a carefully worded statement saying: “PRHI is not the publisher of ‘Belonging’ in India. Any suggestion that PRHI decided not to publish it because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances.”The publishing house, however, defended its “prerogative and responsibility” to fact-check manuscripts and make recommendations to authors. It also said it remained “willing and keen” to publish the book.Earlier this year, PRHI stopped the distribution of cartoonist Joe Sacco’s ‘The Once and Future Riot’, on the Muzaffarnagar riots.
