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Sonia Gandhi begged her husband Rajiv not to become prime minister as senior leaders pressed him at the hospital where Indira Gandhi lay after her assassination on October 31, 1984, according to her memoir published by HarperCollins India. “They will kill you; they will kill you, too,” she recalled telling him with folded hands while bursting into tears and pleading for the sake of their children. Rajiv responded that they would kill him anyway, the book stated. The memoir, titled Belonging: A Journey of Love, captures the immediate horror at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where the family confronted the loss and the sudden demand for Rajiv to take office.
Indira Gandhi’s killing by her Sikh bodyguards came after the Indian army’s assault on the Golden Temple, an event that left her aware of threats and preparing her family for potential death, a Guardian interview with Sonia Gandhi noted. Rajiv, then 40, was sworn in as prime minister that evening and served until his Congress party lost power in 1989 amid a corruption scandal, Reuters historical timeline from 2011 showed. Seven years after Indira’s death, Rajiv himself was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in 1991 while campaigning, an attack that Indian intelligence had received prior warnings about, the memoir recounted. Sonia Gandhi wrote that fear dominated their lives in the intervening years, with the family home turned into a fortress and the children removed from normal routines.
Sonia Gandhi had resisted entering politics for years after Rajiv’s death and even during his time in office, according to excerpts from the book published by The Hindu. She enrolled as a primary member of Congress in 1997 and became party president in 1998 at a time when the organization faced splits, electoral losses and internal crises, an account in Frontline magazine from 1998 detailed. The pull of duty to preserve the party and counter rising communal forces eventually drew her in despite her aversion to the ambition and treachery she associated with political life, she explained in the memoir. Congress workers repeatedly urged her to lead as the party risked disintegration without the Nehru-Gandhi name at its helm.
Months before the 2004 general election, Sonia Gandhi told her children she would not accept the prime ministership if Congress won, a decision she kept from colleagues to avoid triggering leadership battles, India Today reported after reviewing the book. Rahul and Priyanka opposed her taking the post, haunted by the assassinations of their grandmother and father and convinced the office posed exceptional danger, The Hindu cited from the memoir. After Congress-led victory that year, she declined the role following intense pressure from allies and a confrontation with her son, ultimately recommending Manmohan Singh instead, multiple accounts including her former aide’s book have confirmed. Her choice aligned with an earlier 1999 stance when she had also ruled herself out over her foreign origin, according to R.D. Pradhan’s writings.
The book devotes space to the 2002 Gujarat riots, describing a wrenching encounter in a relief camp where a father held up his sexually assaulted young daughter and cried for help, leaving Sonia Gandhi shattered, The Hindu reported from the text. She attributed the violence to a fanatical fringe of the BJP and RSS with then Chief Minister Narendra Modi in charge, adding that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee faced party pressure against dismissing him, the memoir stated. These events formed part of her broader reflection on six decades of social and political changes in India since she arrived from Italy as a young bride, an Associated Press summary of the book noted.
Sonia Gandhi’s nearly 25 years as Congress president made her the longest-serving leader of the party, a period that included guiding it back to power in 2004 and 2009 before its heavy defeat in 2014, Reuters records indicate. The memoir addresses personal attacks on her Italian birth, including accusations of disloyalty and derogatory labels from political opponents, which she said caused her deep hurt, according to The Hindu excerpts. It also covers family tensions such as the bitter 1980s fallout with sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi, whom she portrayed as spreading falsehoods and using unacceptable language in Indira’s household, India Today detailed from the text. Gandhi, now 79, has stepped back from active politics while her children Rahul and Priyanka remain in prominent roles.
