New York/New Delhi: Former US president Barack Obama’s new book ‘A Promised Land’ lands a sharp left hook on Rahul Gandhi’s “nervous, uninformed quality” while directing warm, not-so-political praise at Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, according to a book review Thursday in the New York Times.
The first rush of book excerpts swirling on the internet point to a brutal takedown of Rahul Gandhi. “Rahul Gandhi has a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject,” notes the review.
“We are told of the handsomeness of men like Charlie Crist and Rahm Emanuel, but not the beauty of women, except for one or two instances, as in the case of Sonia Gandhi,” writes reviewer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh both are clubbed into a subset of people who have a “kind of impassive integrity.”
Writing about Joe Biden, Obama senses he “might get prickly if he thought he wasn’t given his due – a quality that might flare up when dealing with a much younger boss.”
Obama’s latest book, coinciding with the return of his Vice President Joe Biden to the White House, takes readers on a journey from his earliest political aspirations to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.
‘A Promised Land’ will be published on November 17 by Crown.
Obama’s other books include ‘Dreams from My Father’ and ‘The Audacity of Hope’.
Meanwhile, after Rahul Gandhi was referred to as a ‘nervous’ leader by former US President Barack Obama in his book, the Congress chose not to comment on it officially, though party leaders on Friday criticized Obama.
Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “May I humbly remind certain overzealous friends of the media running a sponsored agenda that we don’t comment on the individual’s views in a book.”
“In the past, a leader has been called “psychopath” and “master divider” by people and agencies. We didn’t acknowledge such comments!” he added.
Though Congress leaders have objected to it. “Mr Obama, no one can know the personality of any person in 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes it takes years . You are wrong to judge the personality of Rahul Gandhi ji. You will bite the dust just wait for some time,”said Udit Raj, a party spokesperson.
Congress leader Archana Dalmia in a tweet said, “We don’t need a Barack Obama to pass a judgment on ‘Our Leader’ Rahul Gandhi.”
While Acharya Pramod Krishnan has been more critical of Obama, he said, “He has hurt the sentiments of crores of Congress workers who consider Rahul Gandhi as God.”
He attacked Obama and said, “Those who speak truth are incompetent and those who speak lies are competent “and how did Obama knew that he is a bad student, was he with him in the class. Krishnan termed Obama an “andh bhakt”.
Rahul Gandhi had met Obama on many occasions, the first one was in November 2010 when Rahul Gandhi was the General Secretary of the party. And second was when Obama visited India in 2017 said sources.
Former US president Barack Obama’s new book ‘A Promised Land’ lands a sharp left hook on Rahul Gandhi’s “nervous, uninformed quality” while directing warm, not-so-political praise at Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, according to a book review Thursday in the New York Times.
The first rush of book excerpts swirling on the internet point to a brutal takedown of Rahul Gandhi. “Rahul Gandhi has a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject,” notes the review.