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| Tavleen Singh was a close friend of Sonia Gandhi till she did a profile of the Congress leader in 1986 for India Today. |
India media is having a storm in the tea cup moment, with former editor Shekar Gupta denying there was any pressure to drop Tavleen Singh's column from Indian Express and she asserting to disagree.
The new controversy also replays the old acrimony between close friends-who-fell out Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and journalist Tavleen Singh.
There has been a small rumour within media circles. for anyone who cared, that Sonia Gandhi wanted Indian Express to discontinue with its Tavleen Singh column.
In an article in Business Standard on Friday, the newspaper's former editor Shekar Gupta made a reference to it.
He had gone to a release function of Tavleen Singh's new book, India's broken tryst. Someone accosted him and asked if it was true that he was asked to leave Indian Express after he refused to drop her from the paper.
Sonia Gandhi is a said to have called him directly and made the demand.
Shekar Gupta denied that the was any pressure and dismissed any talk of Sonia Gandhi calling him on the issue.
He also went on to say that Sonia Gandhi's aides were critical of the column which they described as mythical and repetitive.
Shekar Gupta's account of the rumour did not go down well with Tavleen Singh. She tweeted on Saturday asserting that the rumour was true and that there was indeed pressure on Indian Express to drop her. She said another former Indian Express editor Suman Dubey had spoken to others on the issue, without specifying who they were
Tavleen Singh was a close friend of Sonia Gandhi till she did a profile of the Congress leader in 1986 for India Today. The unflattering profile made Sonia Gandhi drop her from her list of friends and turned Tavleen Singh into fierce critic of the Gandhi family.
Shekhar Gupta denies he was under pressure to drop my column. He has to I suppose but Suman Dubey spoke to others. There are witnesses!— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) April 23, 2016