Book on Sonia's foreign origin released

A book claiming to "scrutinise" Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins was released in New Delhi on Friday.

"Sonia Under Scrutiny examines the legal, political, social, constitutional and security implications of Gandhi becoming the prime minister of India," said A Surya Prakash, its editor and a senior journalist.

M J Akbar, Editor-in-Chief, The Asian Age, released the book, published by India First Foundation.

On Thursday the newspaper carried a signed article by Bofors investigator Sten Lindstrom, in which he sought, among other things, that Gandhi be questioned so that the "truth" about the pay-off in the gun deal could come out.

Akbar, however, said his releasing the book had nothing to do with the publication of the article in his paper.

"I had agreed to release the book eight months ago," he said.

About the timing of the article, Akbar said, "The timing was chosen by the policeman (Lindstrom) who wanted to give the story."

Janata Dal-United leader Jaya Jaitley, who contributed one of the book's 10 chapters, said, "Gandhi still has one leg in Italy, as demonstrated by the fact that she still has property there."

S Gurumurthy, a journalist and another contributor, said the Congress should answer why it took Gandhi 15 years to surrender her Italian passport.

"There are no records to show whether she has yet applied to give up Italian citizenship," he said.