New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's memoir is shrouded in uncertainty for the time being so far as its publication and distribution in India is concerned with Penguin Random House India saying it is their "prerogative and responsibility'' to fact check authors.

The statement of Penguin Random House evoked a sharp reaction from several Congress leaders who raised issues of governmental pressure and freedom of expression.

Penguin Random House India on Friday said it had been keen to publish Sonia Gandhi's memoir "Belonging: A Journey of Love" throughout "the relevant discussions" but it is their "prerogative and responsibility" to fact check authors.

It is not the publisher of the book in India, Penguin Random House India said in a statement, days after American publisher Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced that "Belonging" would be released on November 10.

The statement follows a report in the Indian Express claiming that the publisher backed out after Gandhi refused "editorial changes" to the manuscript.

"Penguin Random House India is not the publisher of Belonging in India. Any suggestion that Penguin Random House India decided not to publish Belonging because the author declined editorial changes does not accurately reflect the circumstances," the company said.

"As a publisher, it is both our prerogative and our responsibility to fact check and provide authors with recommendations that are in the best interests of their books. This is a normal part of the publishing process. Throughout the relevant discussions, Penguin Random House India's position was that we remained willing and keen to publish the book," it said.

Even as the status of the book's distributor in India remains uncertain, a page on e-commerce website Amazon showed an E-book 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. The book's India release has been a matter of much speculation since Alfred A Knopf's announcement.

Sonia Gandhi, Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader, remains one of India's most discussed political figures. She 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.

Several Congress leaders lashed out at PRHI, asking what prevented it from publishing the memoir in India when it was being published worldwide by its imprint.

Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said "pressuring and stopping" the book is akin to "murdering the freedom of expression".

He claimed that pressure was put on Penguin India "to remove sections on Modi, RSS and those related to the occupation of Indian territory by China during the Modi regime".

Senior party leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath also said the publisher's "refusal" to publish the autobiography is a matter of grave concern.

"Will the publisher decide what a senior figure like Mrs. Gandhi will write and what she will not? The question also arises whether the publisher is saying this on its own or if there is pressure from someone on it?" Nath said in his post on X in Hindi.

Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi slammed Penguin India's statement on the issue as "weak".

"Such a weak statement. Penguin India is more than happy to publish 'Exam Warriors' and several books on RSS. No doubt there are those in the BJP government who have now become afraid of a book being being read by the people of India," Gogoi said on X.

The Indian Youth Congress said, "Dear SOLD Penguin, nobody asked whether you were 'keen'. Tell us what changes you wanted, and why. The rest is corporate grammar."

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".

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.With Agency Inputs

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.