Dr Sanjaya Baru was the PM's media advisor between 2004-2008 (File photo)
A 201-page memoir called 'The Accidental PM: the making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh' by the Prime Minister's former media advisor couldn't have come at a worse time for the government.
In the book, Dr Sanjaya Baru, who was the PM's advisor between 2004-2008, says PM Singh was 'defanged' in his second term in office and quotes Dr Singh as having told him that there cannot be two centres of power - an obvious reference to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Dr Baru says the PM made "the cardinal mistake of imagining the victory was his" in 2009.
Dr Baru also writes that the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had regular meetings with Mrs Gandhi, and sought her instructions on important files to be signed by the PM.
The book also claims that Mrs Gandhi decided key appointments to the Cabinet and to the PMO, and instead of the government, credit for social initiatives went to the National Advisory Council which was often referred to as the shadow cabinet.
Dr Baru said, "The people of the country should know what is happening in the highest level of the governance. I wrote the book with a motive to let people know the success and failure of Manmohan Singh."
But the PMO has denounced the memoir, calling it an attempt to misuse a privileged position for commercial gain, adding that the commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of a former advisor.
The opposition quickly jumped to attack the PM and the Congress President. BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said her party's stand was vindicated by the book. "Sonia Gandhi received files much before PM and she approved. Was she the de-facto PM? Congress went about telling the whole world about a certain sacrifice that was made because of an 'inner voice'. We wonder if you could be seeing cabinet files...and approving such files before the PM. These allegations are serious and cannot be rubbished as Congress wants."
Narendra Modi, BJP's PM candidate, raised it in a public meeting in Pune too even going so far as to say "this accidental PM has drowned the entire country."
The Congress hit out saying the book was a political hatchet job from a person who was denied a second term with the PMO. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress spokesperson, said, "The book stands at crossroads of betrayal, greed, ambition and sensationalism. The jacket cover says backed with political gossip: that's what it is-fiction. The timing can only be attributed to political motives...to betrayal and greed; should I add ambition? All coalesce into a very unsavoury cocktail."
Unsavoury or not, this cocktail has the potential of further damaging a government that's already fighting a crisis of credibility this election.