Fresh political debate after Kalam's 'Turning Point'

As per his statement the president was assured that the congress chief would become PM and that he even kept a letter ready at hand inviting her to form the new government but then reworked the letter after she chose Manmohan Singh to claim the PM seat.

All these revelations are part of his book 'Turning Points' which has created fresh debate on the longstanding claim that stated that Sonia's decision to renounce the post of the PM was governed by the then president APJ Abdul Kalam's viewing her foreign origin.

The foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi has been the BJP's hot button agenda and was the same at that time too. But the president has said that if Sonia had staked a claim for the PM's post then he would have definitely appointed her. In his book Kalam stated that he noted that several politicians urged him not to appoint Sonia Gandhi as the PM. Kalam wrote -"If she had made any claim for herself I would have had no option but to appoint her".

After the stir created by the book the Congress has said that there was nothing new in the excerpts taken out from the book as the Congress parliamentary party had already selected Sonia as its party leader and she would have definitely been the PM had she wished to be.

Describing about the meeting in the year 2004 with Sonia, Kalam said that – at the allotted time, Mrs Sonia Gandhi came to meet him in the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with Dr. Manmohan Singh and after exchanging pleasantries she showed the letters of supports from the various political parties. Thus seeing the letter I just welcome the response.