Former United States President Barack Obama, in his memoir, said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has a "nervous, unformed quality". Obama likened Gandhi to a student who is eager to impress the teacher but lacks aptitude and passion to master the subject.
Rahul Gandhi's mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, too, found a mention in the book.
"We are told of the handsomeness of men like Charlie Crist and Rahm Emanuel, but not the beauty of women, except for one or two instances, as in the case of Sonia Gandhi," Obama wrote.
The excerpts were part of a review in the New York Times written by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In his memoir, A Promised Land, Obama talked about political leaders from around the world among other issues.
On Rahul Gandhi, Obama wrote, there is a "nervous, unformed quality about him as if he were a student who'd done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject," according to The New York Times review.
Also Read: In many respects, modern-day India is counted as a success story, says Barack Obama
Former US Secretary of Defence Bob Gates and former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh both come across as having a kind of "impassive integrity," the review states.
It also states that Russian President Vladimir Putin reminds Obama of the tough, street-smart ward bosses who used to run the Chicago machine.
"Physically, he was unremarkable," Obama writes of Putin.
On President-elect Joe Biden, Obama said he is a "decent, honest, loyal man might get prickly if he thought he wasn’t given his due — a quality that might flare up when dealing with a much younger boss."
The 768-page memoir is expected to release on November 17. It chronicles Obama's childhood and political rise, before diving deeply into his historic 2008 campaign and first four years in office.
In a short profile published in TIME magazine in 2015, Obama had said, "Prime Minister Modi recognizes that more than 1 billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world."
Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He visited India twice as the US President - in 2010 and 2015.
Also Read: Barack Obama spent childhood years listening to Ramayana and Mahabharata
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