Sonia Gandhi says memoir is a love story, recalls hurt over foreign-origin row and 2004 decision

The former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has said she decided to write about her own life after years of others doing so, describing her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, as a story of growing attachment to India as well as a love story.

Gandhi made the remarks in a written interview to The Hindu, published on Saturday, in answer to questions from N Ram. The book, published in India by HarperCollins India, will be released on November 10.

Why she wrote it

Gandhi said she has never been drawn to reading books about herself, and that she and her late husband, Rajiv Gandhi, stopped following what was written about them years ago. She said she began putting thoughts on paper more than a decade ago, but sustained work started only about five years back, with long stretches when she could not write.

She said the book is also about how she came to care for her husband’s family and the country they belonged to. It was her sense that the party was weakening and that the family’s sacrifices were at risk, she said, that drew her into public life.

Family and values

Asked what remains of the young woman from a small Italian town, Gandhi said the principles she grew up with have stayed with her, including loyalty, sincerity, concern for others and a sense of responsibility. She said she was more cheerful in those days.

Gandhi said she arrived in India with no knowledge of the country and credited Rajiv and Indira Gandhi for what she has learnt since. She said their courage, empathy, belief in a secular and democratic India and sense of duty guided her through difficult periods.

On the Emergency of 1975-77, Gandhi said she understood how serious it had been only once it ended. She said rights were curtailed, though through constitutional means, and that she saw Indira Gandhi as having been under pressure from unrest and from senior colleagues. She noted that Indira Gandhi later called elections and publicly regretted excesses.

Foreign origin and 2004

Asked about the 1999 challenge over her foreign origin, Gandhi said it hurt, and that she was shocked that colleagues she had trusted still saw her as an outsider. She said she offered to quit as Congress president but reconsidered after reflection and stayed on.

On not taking the prime minister’s post after the Congress-led win in 2004, Gandhi said she has never speculated about how UPA policy might have differed if she had. She said the arrangement worked well, with Manmohan Singh running the government and her handling the party.

Penguin Random House India stepped back from the book weeks before its release, and HarperCollins India took over publication in India. Asked whether the change was over the book’s content or the author’s freedom of expression, Gandhi said, “I would rather not involve myself in these controversies.”