NEW DELHI: BJP leader Amit Malviya on Friday took a dig at Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over Penguin Random House India’s decision to "fact-check her memoir", questioning whether the exercise was meant to verify the author’s memories or address what he described as “the blurred line between fact and fiction”.Malviya said it was “rather amusing” that the publisher felt the need to fact-check a memoir written by Sonia Gandhi herself.

"It is rather amusing that Penguin Random House India felt the need to fact-check Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, a book authored by Sonia Gandhi herself. The publisher says fact-checking is a normal part of the publishing process and that it remained “willing and keen” to publish the book. Fair enough," Malviya said in a post on X."But if a publisher has to fact-check a memoir written by its own author, perhaps the obvious question is: what exactly needed fact-checking - the author’s memories, or the blurred line between fact and fiction?" he added.

The remarks came after Penguin Random House India clarified on Friday that it is not the publisher of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love in India. The publishing house also rejected reports that it had decided against publishing the book because Sonia Gandhi declined to accept editorial changes.

In a statement posted on X, the publishing house said it had remained “willing and keen to publish” the memoir and stressed that fact-checking and providing editorial recommendations are a routine part of the publishing process.The clarification comes weeks after US publisher Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced that Belonging would be released on November 10. However, the memoir’s publisher or distributor in India remains unclear.

An e-commerce listing has shown an e-book edition of Belonging available for pre-order at Rs 2,615, with William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins UK, listed as the publisher.According to Alfred A Knopf, the memoir by 79-year-old Sonia Gandhi will offer a personal account of her life, spanning her childhood in post-war Italy, her marriage into the Nehru-Gandhi family and the assassination of her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.The book will also chronicle her entry into the “public world of politics” following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and her decision to decline the post of prime minister in 2004.