How much does Sonia Gandhi's book tell and what does it not tell?

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In July 2003, Sonia Gandhi was presiding over a brainstorming meeting of Congress in Shimla. This meeting was called to prepare for the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year.

The atmosphere was full of enthusiasm and discussions were taking place openly. The party leadership had begun to understand that an alliance with regional parties might be necessary to remove the BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee from power.

During this time, Sonia came to know that some senior leaders of the party were discussing who should lead the Congress in the elections. She was surprised to know this.

She was Congress President for five years. He traveled across the country, campaigned, led the opposition and tried to revive the party, which was struggling with factionalism and deteriorating electoral performance.

Despite this, some people within the Congress still had doubts about whether he was the right person to lead the party in the parliamentary elections.

In her book 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', released by HCI on November 10, Sonia writes that she was hurt by this.

His political opponents had been questioning his Indian identity and now he had become used to it. But having such doubts in the minds of one's own colleagues was a completely different thing.

Sonia reacted immediately. This is also clear from this part of Belonging:

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I called my colleague and sent a message to that group of senior leaders. As Congress President, it was my duty to lead the election campaign and I had no intention of doing anything different. When I finally reached the hall and the political resolution was read out in front of everyone, the situation was clear. I will lead the party and we will be ready to form an alliance to defeat BJP.

This incident is one of the most important parts of his memoir. It challenges the familiar image of Sonia Gandhi as a woman who entered politics reluctantly and was indifferent to power.

His hesitation about entering politics was genuine, but his intention to use the authority that came with his position was equally strong.

The women who did not want to enter politics were not ready to be sidelined after accepting its responsibilities.

This contradiction is visible throughout Belonging. The biggest achievement of this book is that it tells how a woman who was very cautious about her personal life became a strong political strategist.

But its limitation is that Sonia speaks openly about her feelings, but does not often talk about the consequences of her political decisions.

The story of Sonia Gandhi becoming a politician

Image source, RAVI RAVEENDRAN/AFP via Getty Images

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Sonia's political journey is often told as a story of prolonged hesitation.

After the death of Sanjay Gandhi in 1980, he had opposed Rajiv Gandhi's entry into politics. Even after Rajiv's assassination in 1991, he repeatedly rejected offers to take up a political role.

But his lack of desire to hold any position did not mean that he was not interested in politics.

The politician within Sonia started taking shape long before she formally joined the Congress.

While living with Indira Gandhi, accompanying Rajiv on his travels and observing the controversies related to the Emergency, Bofors and Ayodhya, she was absorbing the language of Indian politics, its intuitive understanding and its contradictions.

This process proceeded slowly and almost imperceptibly to anyone. But looking back it can be clearly recognised.

In 1997, when pressure increased on Sonia to take charge of the Congress, she took the help of Bhagavad Gita. Sanskrit scholar Vachaspati Upadhyay helped him understand its philosophical meaning.

The idea of religion to do one's duty without worrying about the consequences became for him a way to balance personal fears and political responsibility.

But what happened next cannot be understood in terms of duty alone.

While covering the many ups and downs of the Congress, I often found that Sonia's political instincts were much sharper than her public image.

He learned to listen to people, weigh different claims, recognize trustworthy allies, and stick to his guns when necessary. The incident in Shimla shows that by then she had already established herself in politics.

The incident of Sonia Gandhi becoming Congress President in place of Sitaram Kesari in March 1998 is another important example of this. However, it has been explained very briefly in the memoir.

Sonia writes that the Congress Working Committee considered the change necessary, Kesari was asked to step down and after this she went to his house. There he touched Kesari's feet and took her blessings.

This was emotional behavior. But this hardly provides any answer to the circumstances in which Kesari was removed. The incident is widely seen as a coup carried out without any honor within the party.

The party's elected president was removed through a controversial intervention by the Congress Working Committee. How much did Sonia know about this whole manipulation? Did he approve of this approach? The memoir does not give satisfactory answers to these questions.

For a party that prides itself on democratic values, this incident should have been talked about more openly. Personal respect for Kesari cannot explain the politics behind his departure.

The 'outsider' woman who was not ready to step back

For Sonia, the incident in Shimla might have reminded her of an earlier rebellion which had hurt her much more.

Congress Working Committee meeting was held in Delhi on 15 May 1999. PA Sangma raised the question whether Sonia's foreign origin could cause loss to the party in the general elections.

Sharad Pawar praised Sonia's contribution in uniting the party. But he also said that Congress has failed to respond to BJP's campaign on his birth in Italy. Tariq Anwar also joined this disagreement.

RK Dhawan angrily accused the dissenting leaders of furthering the agenda of BJP and RSS. Sonia got up and went out of the meeting.

After this he offered to resign. He wrote that even though he was born abroad, he has chosen India as his home.

This rebellion failed. Later Pawar, Sangma and Anwar formed the Nationalist Congress Party. Four years later, the same insecurity has come to the fore again in Shimla.

Sonia writes that perhaps her colleagues considered her a loss for the party in the elections. His words speak volumes, "It hurt me to think that they still considered me an outsider."

The controversy over foreign origins is one of the most effective parts of the memoir, as it captures a wound that even political success could not fully heal.

Sonia's account also shows how insecurity can turn into strong will. She did not want to let the questions raised about her origins overshadow her claim to leadership.

Not accepting the post of Prime Minister in 2004 completes this contradiction.

The apprehensions of Rahul and Priyanka also influenced his decision. Both had already lost their grandmother and father to murder.

Despite this, Sonia remained the undisputed center of power in the Congress and her role in the system of the United Progressive Alliance i.e. UPA was very important.

Was Sonia ever afraid of her own death, about which her children were so apprehensive?

In an interview with 'The New York Times' this week, Sonia said, "Maybe deep down I didn't really care that this would happen."

Where does memoir set its limits?

When Sonia remembers the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, this book becomes most emotional.

The feelings of that time are so vivid in his memories that they are seen in very few political autobiographies.

Sonia writes about her condition after Rajiv's assassination:

It was as if the days never ended and the nights were even longer. Even if I fell asleep due to the effects of strong drugs, I would wake up from a nightmare. My body would be drenched in sweat, my heart would feel rising to my throat and I would be scared and lost. Priyanka always took care of me. Sometimes she would give me medicines and sometimes she would just monitor me. Even at night she would wake up several times and look at me.

Image source, RAVEENDRAN/AFP via Getty Images

More complex is his discussion of the anti-Sikh pogroms that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in October 1984.

Sonia condemns these killings, accepts the failure of governance and believes that some officials may have deliberately turned a blind eye or incited people's emotions.

She also believes that it took too long for the victims to get justice.

Yet she strongly defends Rajiv and says that he could never have allowed such atrocities. She recalls his appeals to the people to maintain peace and also explains the reason for the delay in army deployment.

These insights are important, but do not adequately investigate many difficult questions.

When mobs were killing Sikhs in the capital, what was the responsibility of the political leadership? What happened to the Congress leaders who were accused of being involved in this? What about the party's failure to hold accountable for decades?

Similar difficulties are visible in Sonia's discussion on Rajiv's decisions regarding Shah Bano and Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Sonia writes that she had questioned Rajiv on weakening the rights of Muslim women. But she largely accepts his explanation that he was trying to strike a balance between conflicting claims related to the Constitution and religion.

She clearly and unconditionally morally condemns the demolition of Babri Masjid.

But Congress's contradictory attitude towards Ayodhya should have been examined in more depth. This includes the opening of the locks in 1986, the laying of the foundation stone in 1989 and Narasimha Rao's reaction in 1992.

The decline of the party and the legacy of a leader

An important achievement of the book is that it details the political difficulties of Congress and the rise of BJP.

Sonia had understood that Congress could no longer defeat BJP only with the strength of its organization. He prepared the party to give up its hesitation about alliance.

This decision prepared the ground for the formation of the UPA, which took power in 2004.

Here the memoir presents a picture of a practical strategist rather than a leader guarding inherited political beliefs.

But the direction the party took after this raises questions on Sonia's leadership.

How did the party that ruled India for ten years get reduced to only 44 Lok Sabha seats in 2014? Why did the foundation of his organization weaken so rapidly?

Sonia mentions BJP's strong election machinery, Narendra Modi's oratorical ability, the campaign run on social media and the continuous allegations of corruption against UPA-2.

She believes that voters were ready for change.

But in his justification, the emphasis is more on the strength of the BJP and the campaign against the Congress rather than on the Congress's own failures in leadership, organization and political dialogue.

This is what separates Belonging from common political autobiographies.

For example, LK Advani's 'My Country, My Life' is primarily a political history. In this, the project related to the author and his ideology has been seen in keeping with the development of BJP.

Sonia presents a different kind of book. It is a personal narrative in which politics enters in through family, relationships, grief and responsibilities.

This personality gives literary and emotional attraction to the memoir. But this also limits its importance as a comprehensive political assessment.

Having observed the Congress for decades, I believe that Sonia's most important achievement was not just bringing the party back to power in 2004.

He showed that forming coalitions, taking different political parties together and exercising restraint could still be an alternative to majoritarian mobilization.

But her legacy must also include the failure that she could not give such a new shape to the party's organization that it would be able to face the growing dominance of the BJP later.

Belonging begins with these lines from the Rigveda, “Let us walk together, speak together, let our minds be united…”

There is a deep irony in these lines. This call, also familiar in the Sangh tradition, talks about a common objective.

It is an unexpectedly apt introduction to the story of a leader who spent much of his political career trying to hold together a divided party.

So this book is important not only because of the things that Sonia brings forward. It also reveals a lot because of the questions it leaves unresolved.

She writes openly about her insecurities, staunchly defends those closest to her, and appears less inclined to rethink decisions whose consequences still haunt the Congress.

For Sonia Gandhi, this journey of accepting a place as her own was personal, which ultimately became her political duty.

Now the challenge before Congress is not just to remain united. He will also have to find a solid reason to convince the country why people should trust him.

This unfinished work is as much a part of Sonia's legacy as the extraordinary life whose story she has written in this book.

Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.

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