New Delhi: In a fresh attack on Prime Minister’s former media adviser Sanjay Baru, the PMO said that his claims are a smack of “fiction”.
It also rubbished the claim as “baseless and mischievous” that Congress president Sonia Gandhi vetted PMO’s files.
A statement issued by the PMO spokesman Pankaj Pachauri said, “The claims made by a former media adviser to the Prime Minister that PMO files were seen by the Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi are completely baseless and mischievous. It is categorically denied that any PMO file has ever been shown to Mrs Gandhi.”
In his book Accidental Prime Minister - The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, Dr Baru has written that the Prime Minister’s principal secretary Pulok Chatterjee used to seek “instructions” from Mrs Gandhi on important PMO decisions.
Accusing Dr Baru of misusing his “privileged position”, the PMO said, “The book written by the former media adviser is an attempt to gain credibility on the basis of access to high office and to apparently exploit it for commercial gain. The commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of a former adviser.”
The PMO statement came amidst strong attack by the opposition on Mrs Gandhi and the Prime Minister, over the claims made by Dr Baru.
However, Dr Baru in his interaction with media on Sunday claimed that the book is “very balanced” and also highlighted the achievements of UPA.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders on Sunday lashed out at the Congress and the Prime Minister over the book The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh authored by the PM’s former media advisor Sanjay Baru, in which he has claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi took all key decisions.
The saffron party said that the assertion only confirms what the BJP has been maintaining all along. Party patriarch L.K. Advani, who had pitched his 2009 poll campaign on Manmohan Singh being the weakest PM the country has ever seen, said, “The world already knows what he (Dr Baru) has said but the book is an official confirmation.”
Arun Jaitley drew a parallel between the UPA and the communist system. He wrote on his blog, “Did he (PM) have the last word on all subjects? Or is it the system of the original communist states that was operating, where the general secretary was always more important than the head of the government.”
