NEW DELHI: Unfazed by the criticism generated by the book Manzil Se Jyada Safar, former Prime Minister V. P. Singh on Thursday stuck to his guns and said every word mentioned by him in it was true. Also, he said, had the media quoted from the book properly, the controversy over his comments would not have arisen.

Mr. Singh told mediapersons that he had been true to facts while responding to author Ram Bahadur Rai's questions for the book that was released on Sunday on his 75th birthday. However, he conceded that in the current political milieu, it was only natural for politicians to refute what he had said in the book.

Vajpayee's objections

In particular, he responded to the objections raised by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, and Congressman M. L. Fotedar to references in the book. About reports that Mr. Jaswant Singh had told him that Mr. Vajpayee wanted to leave the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Singh said there was no such mention in the book.

Misquoted on Sonia

On reports of his mentioning security concerns as the reason for Congress president Sonia Gandhi deciding against taking up the post of Prime Minister, Mr. Singh said that once again the media had misquoted him. "In the book, I've mentioned that Mr. Fotedar told me about a threat to her security but I've gone on to cite Ms. Gandhi's own reasons for not becoming Prime Minister. That was not reported by the media,'' he said.

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