Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram to skip launch of Saifuddin Soz's controversial book

Saifuddin Soz. (PIC/ANI)

New Delhi: Former PM Manmohan Singh and ex-Congress minister P Chidambaram will skip the launch of senior party leader Saifuddin Soz's book. The Congress had earlier dismissed the claims of former union minister Saifuddin Soz on the choice of Kashmiris as stray remarks and "cheap gimmick" to sell his forthcoming book and said the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit will take appropriate action. In his book, Soz has said that "independence" is the first choice of Kashmiris as he supported former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's assessment in this regard. "Musharraf had explained that if Kashmiris were given a chance to exercise their free will, they would prefer to be independent. In fact, this assessment of Musharraf seems to be correct even today," he has written in the book. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala rejected Soz's contention and said that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will continue to be so and that is an incontrovertible and unquestionable truth. "Congress party and every rightful citizen of India reject such content as a gimmick to sell a book that is yet to come into the market. There is incontrovertible unquestionable truth and that is J&K was an integral part of India, is an integral part of India, and will always remain an integral part of India," he was quoted by news agency PTI while talking to reporters. The Congress leader said that many people will make many statements "either to sell book or to gain cheap publicity through friends of the media". As things went out of hand, Soz said the remarks made by him are his personal opinion and have nothing to do with the party. He also maintained that the Kashmir issue can be resolved not by using force but only through dialogue. BJP latched on to the issue and slammed Soz's comments and asked Rahul Gandhi to apologise for it.