According to various prominent legal figures in India, Former President Barack Obama's memoir "A Promised Land" is allegedly 'insulting' to Indian politicians, citing numerous 'humiliating' passages from the book.

A senior lawyer from Uttar Pradesh has filed a civil suit against the former President, claiming that the new memoir contains 'humiliating' passages that insulted Indian politicians; with Gyan Prakash Shukla, National President of the All India Rural Bar Association demanding police action.

In the memoir, Obama wrote about former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former President of the Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi, stating in one of the passages that Gandhi "has a nervous, unformed quality about him", though adding that he was "smart and earnest".

In the memoir, the former President wrote that Congress President Sonia Gandhi might have picked Manmohan Singh as the country's 13th Prime Minister as he "posed no threat" to her son Rahul, "whom she was grooming to take over the Congress Party", remarking that "[Manmohan Singh] owed his position to Sonia Gandhi".

Obama described Singh has "wise, thoughtful, and scrupulously honest", adding that his policies brought about higher living standards, lifted millions of people out of poverty, and earned him a positive reputation.

Contrastingly, the former President likened Rahul Gandhi to "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", serving as a damning critique of the politician.

Indian MP Sanjay Raut described Obama's comments about Rahul Gandhi as "distasteful," adding that "a foreign politician cannot give such opinions on Indian political leaders"; while Shukla demanded the court to lodge an FIR, threatening to fast outside the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.