Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continued to maintain their silence about claims in a recent book about two power centres in UPA but Priyanka Gandhi today joined issues to say that only he was the "super PM".
Amid a storm over a tell-all book by PM's former media adviser Sanjaya Baru that had raised questions over the political authority of the Prime Minister, Priyanka made a strong defence of Congress.
"Only Manmohan Singh was super PM...," she told reporters in reply to a question on the views expressed in the book 'The Accidental Prime Minister' that "It is no secret that Sonia Gandhi was the super Prime Minister. (...)".
Singh's daughter Upinder Singh termed Baru's account of his days in the PMO as "nothing but a stab in the back". She accused him of "violating" the PM's trust and branded the book an "unethical", "mischievous" exercise.
Upinder, who teaches history in Delhi University, said Baru has pieced together "gossip" and unverified quotes, including some of her father's, and used them as statements of fact.
In an interview to The Indian Express, she also questioned the timing of the book, which has hit the stands in the midst of elections, much to the embarrassment of the PMO and the ruling Congress. She said it could not be described as an "objective" book.
