Sonia Gandhi has been a leading figure in Indian politics for decades.
She was the president of the INC from 1998 to 2017 and is the party's longest-serving chief.
Earlier this month, Alfred A. Knopf announced that Gandhi's "Belonging: A Journey of Love" will be published on November 10.
"The real issue is that pressure was put on Penguin India to remove the portions related to Modi, the RSS, and the occupation of Indian territory by China during Modi's rule.
This comes a day after Penguin India released a statement of clarification: "Any suggestion that Penguin Random House India decided not to publish 'Belonging' because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances."
08/29/2026 August 29, 2026 Congress slams Penguin India for backing out of Sonia Gandhi's memoir
Sonia Gandhi's memoir reportedly addresses her decision to turn down the position of Prime Minister of India in 2004 [FILE: June 2024] Image: Sondeep Shankar/Pacific Press/picture alliance
Leaders of India's largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC), alleged that publishing house Penguin India was pressured to back out of publishing veteran politician Sonia Gandhi's memoir due to portions related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist group, and China's alleged occupation of Indian territory under Modi's rule.
Sonia Gandhi has been a leading figure in Indian politics for decades. She was the president of the INC from 1998 to 2017 and is the party's longest-serving chief.
Earlier this month, Alfred A. Knopf announced that Gandhi's "Belonging: A Journey of Love" will be published on November 10. Knopf is a publishing imprint under Penguin Random House.
"Suppressing the book of Sonia Gandhi, a person of such stature, a senior leader of the nation, and former Leader of the Opposition, under pressure is tantamount to the murder of freedom of Expression," senior INC leader Ashok gehlot said in a post on X.
"The real issue is that pressure was put on Penguin India to remove the portions related to Modi, the RSS, and the occupation of Indian territory by China during Modi's rule. This is the murder of democracy," he said.
In another post, Gehlot said "there's some kind of pressure. It could be from the PMO [Prime Minister's Office] or someone else — that time will tell."
This comes a day after Penguin India released a statement of clarification: "Any suggestion that Penguin Random House India decided not to publish 'Belonging' because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances."
The statement was referring to a report by The Indian Express which said the publishing house would not publish the book in India because "editorial changes and deletions" were turned down by the author.
"As a publisher, it is both our prerogative and our responsibility to fact check and provide authors with recommendations that are in best interests of their books," Penguin India said in its statement, adding that it "remained willing and keen to publish the book."
