Controversial novel on Sonia now out in India

A fictionalised account of Sonia Gandhi's life by Spanish author Javier Moro which could not be published in India after Congress objected to its contents a few years ago has finally hit book stores in the country.

"The Red Sari has now been published in India. Get your copy!" tweeted Roli Book's editorial director Priya Kapoor.

The book, first published in Spanish with the title 'El Sari Rojo' in 2008, had created a controversy with the Congress chief's lawyers then describing it as containing "untruths, half truths, falsehoods and defamatory statements" and serving Moro with a legal notice in 2010.

According to the publishers, the 455-page book, priced at Rs 395, is an "Indianised version" of the original work.

Moro, whose earlier book Pasión India has been translated into 17 languages, traces the journey of Sonia with information sourced from close friends and colleagues.

"From her idyllic childhood to her passionate love affair and from her days as a docile daughter-in-law to her current status of being the only Indian politician to have refused prime ministership, 'The Red Sari' tells the story of an extraordinary woman whose dreams of home, hearth and anonymous living were struck down by the hands of fate," the book's blurb says.

The book examines the lives of the Nehru-Gandhi family and is set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War, the Emergency, Operation Blue Star and other events that have shaped modern Indian history.