Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi (then Prime Minister) wave at locals during a tour of Mizoram in July 1986.
Sonia's impeccable dress sense was shaped by Indira's knowledge of India's incredible fabrics and textures.
For those who watch like hawks the
Indian political landscape, particularly the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, it
will be easy to dismiss London-based former BBC journalist Rani Singh's
biography of the Congress President — Sonia Gandhi - An extraordinary life, an Indian destiny (Pan Macmillan) — as pedestrian fare offering nothing that is startling or new.
But
read the book as a well-written, neat and fairly detailed compilation
of events, circumstances and destiny that catapulted a girl born in an
ordinary middle-class Italian family into the position of the most
important and powerful political leader of a country of 1.2 billion
people, and you'll glean its merits.
When Rajiv
Gandhi fell in love with Sonia, Indira Gandhi was much more receptive to
her son marrying a foreigner than Sonia's parents, especially her
father, were. Indira once told fellow Kashmir Pandit M.L. Fotedar that
she had always wanted a Kashmiri daughter-in-law. “But Sonia is just
like a Kashmiri girl; faithful to her husband, faithful to the family. I
am satisfied.”
In many passages like this, you get
the feeling the author is going out of her way to dwell on the strong
bonds between Indira and Sonia. What is missing is a hard and critical
look at Sonia's shortcomings.
Sonia's transition
from a young woman in Delhi who “sometimes dressed in European fashion:
tall boots, short skirts, form-fitting trousers and jumpers, big
earrings and makeup, her long luxurious hair often worn down with a side
part… (that) always turned heads”, to an astute politician who stepped
forward in March 1998 to take charge of a Congress party that was
falling apart under the leadership of Sitaram Kesri, is well captured in
the book.
Quoting from Mushirul Hasan's book Nehrus: Personal Histories,
the author writes that Sonia came to India at an impressionable age, so
the greatest single factor that would have influenced her was the
presence of “a towering figure like Indira Gandhi, who, with all her
faults and failings, was… one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth
century.” It was the best political kindergarten Sonia could have had,
notes Singh.
The book dwells at length on something
that is well known in India — how fiercely Sonia fought against Rajiv
entering politics. After Sanjay's death in 1980, her husband's entry
into politics caused stress in their marriage. For the first time in 15
years, Sonia noted in her book Rajiv, “there was tension between
Rajiv and me. I fought like a tigress — for him, for us and our
children, for the life we had made together, his flying which he loved,
our uncomplicated, easy friendships, and above all, for our freedom:
that simple human right that we had so carefully and consistently
preserved.”
She described her husband's relationship
with the party as one that “demanded him as a sacrificial lamb. It
would crush him and destroy him — of that I was absolutely certain — I
remember that long year as being one of complete helplessness, with
every minute drawing us close to the abyss. I kept hoping for a miracle,
a solution which would be acceptable and fair to all of us. I could no
longer bear to watch Rajiv being torn apart. I would bow to those forces
which were now beyond me to fight, and would go with him wherever they
took him”.
In May 1981, 11 months after Sanjay's
death, Rajiv resigned from Indian Airlines. Indira gave instructions
that Sonia should accompany Rajiv when he went to rural areas, and thus
the seed was sown for her rural experience.
Details
of Indira's assassination, how Sonia rushed her to hospital, even though
known, are related in a dramatic, readable style. She fought, once
again, against Rajiv stepping into his mother's shoes. In the hospital,
leaders were pushing Rajiv to step into the premier position. Indira's
Principal Secretary, P.C. Alexander, went into the waiting room and saw
Sonia in a terrible state, begging Rajiv not to take over. “They were
hugging each other, he was kissing her forehead”. Sonia was in tears and
saying, “You should step back and allow someone else to hold this job.”
Sonia
slowly shedding her reluctance to give interviews, particularly for
television, is brought out in Singh's conversations with senior
journalists like Shekhar Gupta and Vir Sanghvi. Gupta, who got her on
his show Walk the Talk, was impressed by the outcome of this
interview, which took him several months to set up. There had been no
preparatory meetings, no support team or entourage for this 2004
interview. “Years later he commented: ‘I was very pleasantly surprised
by how candid and how articulate she was… nobody had tutored her because
I had given her no questions (in advance)'.”
She
took questions on the Emergency, perhaps for the first time, and
admitted that “mistakes were made, excesses committed... and that Mrs
Gandhi was regretful”.
On the famous fiasco in April
1999 when Mulayam Singh prevented her from becoming the Prime Minister
of India, Sonia categorically denied that this was her intention,
telling Sanghvi in an interview: “Most certainly not… I didn't even have
the mandate of a constituency, how could I do so?”
Then,
of course, there is an entire chapter, ‘My Inner Voice', describing the
drama of May 2004, when the Party begged her to become Prime Minister
but Sonia refused to do so. But if you expect any insight on how, or if,
the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had advised her against heading
the government, there isn't a word. In many places you feel the author
is politically correct and has steered clear of controversies that could
have stalled the publication of the book!
The most
disappointing part of the book, however, is the foreword by Mikhail
Gorbachev, which says little more than that Rajiv and Sonia were a nice
and warm and hospitable couple (Yawn).
But there is
enough in the book to give you a comprehensive account of the enigmatic
woman that Sonia Gandhi is. An added bonus is exhaustive quotes from
Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, but from secondary and already
published/telecast sources. That book is yet to be written where Sonia
or her children talk to the writer about their world, their lives and
their dreams.