As more embarrassing revelations from Dr Sanjaya Baru’s book The Accidental Prime Minister continue to make national headlines, fuming Congress spin-doctors and Gandhi family lackeys have ratcheted up their attacks on the former media adviser. After calling Dr Baru a ‘disgruntled turncoat’, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took the attacks to a new level by asserting that the book’s content was so fictitious and basless that Dr Baru ought to take up a career with The UnReal Times. “I’m sure Dr Baru can give Ashwin Kumar a run for his money, given his florid imagination regarding the goings-on in the PMO and scant regard for propriety and truth,” Surjewala acerbically commented. He hastened to add that the book was not funny either.
Dr Baru laughed off the latest round of insults but admitted that he was not prepared for this salvo. “To call me an Unreal Times columnist and to brand the whole book as an instance of the work that The Unreal Times brand stands for was, I admit, a bit too much. It shows how rattled Congress leaders are,” he said.
Dr Baru hopes the book triggers a sympathy wave for Dr Manmohan Singh. “I have chronicled how the Prime Minister’s Office was systematically undermined, leaving the Prime Minister with little authority but all the responsibility,” Dr Baru said, and read out one of the most shocking passages from the book:
After casting my vote in the New Delhi constituency on April 12, 2009, I immediately made my way to 7, RCR. Dr Singh was hunched at his desk, reading a book, when I barged in and showed him the ink mark on my left index finger. Dr Singh nodded.
I noticed there was no ink mark on any of his fingers.
“Sir, aren’t you going to vote for the candidate of your choice?” I asked cheerfully.
The Prime Minister got up and looked out of the window, fixing his gaze at a peacock in the lawn that separates 7, RCR from 3, RCR, the Prime Minister’s domestic quarters.
“I want to, Baru,” Dr Singh whispered, “but I am waiting for clearance from madam.”
“But Sir,” I remonstrated, “ you are the bloody Prime Minister and an Indian citizen, moreover. You don’t need clearance from Sonia for this also. You have the right to vote for the candidate of your choice through secret ballot.”
The Prime Minister sighed. “There are limits to what I can do, Baru. Voting is a political decision and you know I have zero political authority. It’s better that Sonia ji signs off on the file on who I should vote for.”
I nodded my head and took his leave with sadness. The Prime Minister’s authority, zero to begin with, was now slipping into negative territory. I knew time had come to put in my papers and jump the sinking ship.
[For spicy revelations, pick up a copy of 'The Accidental Prime Minister'. For spicier revelations, pick up ‘Unreal Elections’, which chronicles goings-on in UPA II from 2012 to present]