NEW DELHI: The former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, turned 75 on Sunday and celebrated it in the company of fellow-travellers in politics and slum-dwellers whose cause he champions.

A whiff of controversy also emerged over a book brought out to mark his amrit mahotsav.

As politicians from different parties set aside their evening for `Raja saheb,' television coverage of a reference in his book to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's decision not to become Prime Minister put him in a spot of bother.

All day, television channels ran a story quoting him as saying in the book Manzil Se Jyada Safar that Ms. Gandhi had opted out of the top office due to security considerations.

Chiding the electronic media for not telling the entire story, Mr. Singh said at a function prior to the dinner that Congressman M.L. Fotedar had told him soon after the 2004 election results were out that Ms. Gandhi's life was under threat.

"I met her after that and never once did she refer to any security threat. Her reason for not taking up the office was the apprehension that it would give a `great weapon' to the Bharatiya Janata Party to attack the Government and her party, and she wanted to avoid such a situation.''

That the selective coverage of his reference to Ms. Gandhi's "renunciation" had become an irritant was evident from the repeated references to the story by those who spoke ahead of him at the function organised at his residence.

While the Congress was led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and represented by Cabinet Ministers Santosh Mohan Deb and Meira Kumar at Mr. Paswan's dinner, no senior leader was present at Mr. Singh's residence.

The only Congressman who made it to the dais there was Vasant Sathe.

Out in strength were the Left parties, whom Mr. Singh had once referred to as his natural allies.

They returned the complement with A.B. Bardhan of the Communist Party of India stating that his leadership was still acceptable to the Left parties while CPI (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said Mr. Singh has been a constant influence over Indian politics since the Emergency.

Praise for paintings

Almost all speakers referred to his paintings and poetry, and long-running battle against cancer while dwelling on the various facets of the public life of the leader of the first coalition government at the Centre.

Though the two events were marked by a strong political presence, the "aam aadmi" had a place as slum-dwellers were ferried from one venue to the other despite the dinner being a high-security affair because of the Prime Minister's participation.

While Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had been invited to Mr. Paswan's dinner, they were conspicuous by their absence.

The function at Mr. Singh's residence, however, saw Maneka Gandhi and Dharmendra Pradhan put in a presence.

The Janata Dal (United) was represented by Digvijay Singh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal by Cabinet Minister Raghuvansh Prasad at Mr. Paswan's dinner that had all the trappings of a birthday party; complete with cake and birthday song.

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