Natwar Singh says Sonia mistreated him

On the role of Sonia Gandhi in not allowing to counter the corruption allegations against him when he was suspended, Natwar Singh told NDTV: "We have a tradition that people who are older than you...you give them regard....anyone not born in India would not know this."

In a significant revelation, country's former external affairs minister (who was suspended by Congress and had to exit UPA government after the Volcker Committee Report on the Oil for Food scandal in 2005) Natwar Singh has claimed that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi did not allow his mother Sonia Gandhi from becoming the Indian Prime Minister in 2004.

Singh, however, admitted in the interview that without Gandhis as anchor, the Congress will disintegrate into  five factions."  "For the last 15 years, Sonia Gandhi has held the party together," he said.  

He was also uncharitable on Rahul Gandhi when he said about the Gandhi scion: "For politics, you must have fire in your belly. I don't think he has that fire."

He called later prime minister Rajiv Gandhi a wonderful man. Singh said the reaction of Sonia Gandhi to the book proves he has touched a raw nerve.

Earlier, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said she would write her own book to put facts in right perspective.

Speaking to NDTV amid the controversy, Sonia Gandhi told the channel: "I will write my own book and then everyone will know the truth."

"I am serious about this and I will be writing," she told an NDTV correspondent.

"This will only be the only way the truth will come out. I can't be hurt I have seen my mother in law riddled by bullets my husband dead. I am far from getting hurt with these things," she said referring to what Natwar Singh revealed.

"Let them continue to do this it will not affect me. They can continue to do this if they so please. But I can't be hurt, I am used to this attack," she said.

Natwar Singh said Rahul Gandhi prevented the Congress supremo from taking up the top job in fear that she would be killed like his father and late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

"It was not her inner voice that prevented her, as she claimed at the time, to take up the PM's post but Rahul Gandhi said he would take every step possible to prevent his mother from becoming PM," Natwar Singh said in an exclusive interview to Karan Thapar on Headlines Today earlier.

Manmohan Sing became the Prime Minister of the country in 2004 after the Congress came to power.

Natwar Singh made the remarks in reference to his forthcoming book "One Life is not enough: An autobiography".