Ex-adviser says Indian PM was hobbled by Sonia Gandhi

A former media adviser to India's prime minister has alleged in a new book that Manmohan Singh allowed his authority to be undermined by Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress party and standard-bearer of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Sanjaya Baru's book, "The Accidental Prime Minister", was published on Friday, days after India began a five-week election that is expected to oust Singh's Congress-led coalition from power after two successive terms. But the memoirs, which show the prime minister as subservient to a woman without an official government position, are likely to hand the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a stick with which to beat the Congress party in an increasingly acrimonious campaign. The government is answerable to the party." Singh's spokesman Pankaj Pachauri described the book as "an attempt to misuse a privileged position and access to high office to gain credibility".

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