MUMBAI, Nov 21: A new book to be released this week will rekindle one of India’s most suppressed scandals — surrounding Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.

Author and freelance journalist Mohan Deep, who has previously chronicled the love lives of Bollywood stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, has turned his attention to Nehru’s affair in the late 1940s with Shraddha Mata, a young woman from northern India.

His book, “Nehru and the Tantrik Woman”, will be released this week.

“It is a well suppressed fact that Shraddha Mata gave birth to Nehru’s son in 1949 at a convent in Bangalore. I have attempted to blend this fact with fiction in my book,” said Deep.

The birth of the child has previously been highlighted by Nehru’s then special assistant M.O. Mathai in his book, “Reminiscences of the Nehru Age.”

“Nehru and the Tantrik Woman” was originally written as a play, but the Maharashtra state censor body disallowed the staging of the fictionalised-historical story.

The board said the play defamed national leaders and also had the potential of hurting the religious sentiments of Christians and insulting Hindus.

“After this I decided to write an unabridged version of the play in the form of a book,” Deep said.

His book attempts to initiate a search for Nehru’s and Shraddha Mata’s child, who according to him is very much alive somewhere in India.

“That is the factual part, while the fictionalised element is that I attempt to project this bastard son of Nehru as a potential leader for the country’s misguided people,” said Deep.

“I reiterate that my play is a blend of fact and fiction. There is no attempt to defame anyone dead or alive. However, I want to say that every politician wears a mask and behind it there is a man.”

Deep said his book is also a take-off on Mathai’s earlier writings on Nehru’s affair with Shraddha Mata.

Mathai had written that he had made discreet enquiries about the illegitimate boy but failed to get a clue of his whereabouts.

“Had I succeeded in locating the boy, I would have adopted him. He must have grown up as a Catholic Christian blissfully ignorant of who his father was,” said Mathai in the book.

Deep, meanwhile, said his book explores the psyche of Indians who are continuously in search of a messiah. “I believe there is no such thing as a messiah. It is just that at times common people react extraordinarily and emerge as messiah of the oppressed people.

“I am attempting to explore this psyche. The story is how people of India gather around this illegitimate son of our former prime minister and make him a messiah.” —AFP