Sonia says Natwar’s comments do not hurt her as she had gone through worse

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that the circumstances that made her decide against taking up the post of Prime Minister in 2004 will be revealed in a book that she plans to write.

Ms. Gandhi was responding to comments made by her estranged friend and former party colleague, Natwar Singh, that it was her son Rahul Gandhi’s fear for her life that dissuaded her from accepting the post. Ms. Gandhi told presspersons in Parliament house on Thursday: “I will write my own book and then you will come to know everything ... the only way truth will come out is if I write.”

Sources said Ms. Gandhi had been working on a book on her life, along with daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

“She must write [the book] and I look forward to reading her account. She has been — and remains — an important figure in history,” Mr. Natwar Singh told The Hindu.

Mr. Singh, whose autobiography, One Life is Not Enough, will hit the stands on Friday, says in the book that .

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the comments on Ms. Gandhi was marketing gimmick. “This is their way of trying to market their product,” he told PTI.