CHENNAI: Penguin Random House India has decided not to publish Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' in India after she reportedly rejected proposed changes and deletions to parts of the manuscript, The Indian Express reported.
Penguin India had sought changes to a section of the book, but Gandhi declined to make the requested alterations or omit portions of the text. The disagreement eventually led the publisher to step away from the project.
The memoir was scheduled for a global release on November 10, with Alfred A Knopf set to publish it in the US. Knopf had added that the first print run for the title would be 1,00,000 copies.
With Penguin India out of the picture, other Indian publishers are reportedly in the fray, with HarperCollins said to be close to finalising an agreement to publish the book in India.
Meanwhile, in an official statement, Penguin said that even though they were "willing and keen to publish the book", it is their “prerogative and responsibility to fact check authors and provide recommendations” as a normal part of the publishing process.
Any suggestion that Penguin decided not to publish Belonging because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances, the company added.
The Congress leader, one of India's most discussed political figures, will be sharing her intimate story of marrying into one of India's most powerful political families, the tragedy of losing Rajiv Gandhi that threw her into the "public world of politics" and turning down prime ministership in 2004 among other things, according to Alfred A Knopf.
Gandhi, 79, who has rarely shared her private life in public forums, narrates her life, "from her childhood in post-war Italy, to the romance that brings her to India, to the shattering losses that will reshape not only her own future but also that of her adopted home", it said.
Even as the status of the book's distributor in India remains uncertain, a page on e-commerce website Amazon showed an ebook version of “Belonging” up for pre-order at Rs 2,615. According to the e-commerce website, the e-book is published by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins UK.
Earlier in June, PRHI had dropped journalist and author Joe Sacco's graphic novel on Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 after taking into account "local legal, regulatory, commercial, and market considerations".
Reports had suggested that the publisher pulled the plug on the book's distribution over "an inaccurate map" and that "no changes are forthcoming" from the originating publisher.
The publisher also made headlines in February this year for saying that it had “not printed” former Army Chief General M M Naravane’s memoirs titled “Four Stars of Destiny”. This was days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi flashed a hard copy of the book in Parliament.
PRHI is the Indian subsidiary/operating company of Penguin Random House (PRH), the global publishing group.
(With PTI inputs)