Gyan Prakash Shukla, a lawyer in Pratapgarh district, has filed a civil suit against former US President Barack Obama’s latest book ‘The Promised Land’ in which he has mentioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In his plea, the lawyer said that what Barack Obama has mentioned about former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is humiliating. He further called it an attack on the sovereignty of the country.

The case will be heard in the court on December 1.

Obama’s latest memoir caused ripples across India even before it hit bookstores on Tuesday. The book, which is the first of two volumes, traces Obama’s political career until the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

What irked most Indians was when Obama explained his first meet with Rahul. Describing his first interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Obama said that he “seemed smart and earnest, his good looks resembling his mother’s.” But he went on to add that there was a “nervous, unformed quality about him”.

In his memoir, Obama extensively praised Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s beauty. “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,” he wrote.

Obama said he was able to develop a warm and productive relationship with Manmohan Singh over the years. He lavished praised on the former PM, calling him a man of “uncommon wisdom and decency”.

“Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, meanwhile, had engineered the modernisation of his nation’s economy,” Obama wrote. He said that he found Singh to be “wise, thoughtful and scrupulously honest”.

Shukla claimed that the remarks made in Obama’s book have hurt millions of supporters of these leaders.

He further warned of chaos if the Congress leaders’ followers take to the streets to protest against the book. The lawyer added that if an FIR is not registered, he would sit on a fast outside the US embassy.