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The Congress on Friday rejected the allegation of Maneka Gandhi that party chief Sonia Gandhi was responsible for the publication of Catherine Frank's controversial biography of Indira Gandhi.
"We are distressed, but not surprised at the intemperate attack launched by Maneka Gandhi, a junior minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government on the leader of the opposition," fumed Congress Working Committee member Natwar Singh.
He stressed that Mankea had sought to convey that somehow the Congress chief was responsible for the publication of the controversial biography.
"This is preposterous and false. It is widely known that it is not the wont of Sonia to speak about herself and her family. In fact, she has always zealously guarded the dignity and privacy of her family," Singh pointed out.
He said that using her recent victory in a libel suit against Catherine Frank and the publisher regarding references about herself, Maneka had launched a "vituperative" attack against the party chief.
Contending that "public memory is not so short so as to forget the circumstances in which Maneka Gandhi made common cause with the worst detractors of Indira Gandhi", Singh alleged that the former eventually accepted the position of a junior minister in the National Democratic Alliance government.
"The BJP has been consistently hostile to the Gandhi family," Singh emphasised, and added, "Maneka Gandhi's diatribe should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves."
Singh, however, did not comment when asked whether the Congress chief would file a suit against Maneka for the uncharitable comments.
"What for, the press statement (by us) already takes care of your queries," Singh told reporters.
This is the latest face-off between the two daughters in-law of Indira Gandhi. More than a decade-and-a-half ago when Maneka's son Varun Feroze was a minor, Sonia and her late husband Rajiv visited the child's school to give him gifts.
When Maneka came to know, she raised Cain and went to the extent of alleging that the two had attempted to "kidnap my son from his school".
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