I am the same person Rajiv met 60 years ago, just smiled more then: Sonia Gandhi ahead of book release

New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said she remains the same person her late husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi met 60 years ago, although she used to smile and laugh more back then.

“I think I can say that I am the same person Rajiv met 60 years ago. But I used to smile and laugh a lot more then!” she said in an interview with The Hindu ahead of the release of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love.

The former Congress president also said she had learnt everything she knew about India from her husband and mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“When I arrived in India as a young bride, I knew nothing about India. All that I am and know today, I know from them,” she said.

'India's fabric damaged by BJP'
Gandhi also alleged that India's democracy, institutions and social fabric had suffered "great damage" over the past 12 years under the Narendra Modi government. She said restoring them would take considerable time and effort even after the government left office.

Gandhi said people were beginning to recognise the damage and were becoming increasingly restless.
"But I am optimistic and I know that the people of India will welcome a return to proper governance," she said.

"Over the last twelve years great damage has been done to the fabric of our country, our democracy and our institutions. Even after this government goes, it will take time to restore our systems back to health and great effort from political parties," she said.

'Elections stolen from us'
Asked about the Congress's decline, its present condition and future prospects, Gandhi said she was not pessimistic. She pointed out that the Congress and other Opposition parties had not had a level playing field since the Modi government came to power.

She alleged that the government had a complete stranglehold over institutions, particularly the Election Commission, as well as control over mainstream media and financial resources, while exploiting religion.
"Yet, our party is fighting and making progress; in fact, it is the only party that has had the resilience to withstand this onslaught," she said.

Gandhi alleged that Congress workers and leaders had faced various kinds of persecution. However, she said party workers continued to fight for constitutional values in villages and districts across the country.

She also alleged that several elections had been stolen in recent months and said people were becoming increasingly aware of it.
"The Congress is working with like-minded parties, and our prospects are improving day by day," she said.

Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political rise and the lessons the Congress could draw from it, Gandhi said he came from a very different ideological background. However, she cited former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as examples of leaders who had succeeded in politics through different routes within the party.

"I don't think we have much to learn from the RSS," she said.

Gandhi also dismissed the suggestion that she might have wondered how the UPA government's policies and the Congress's strategy would have been different had she accepted the prime minister's post in 2004.

"No, not at all. That has never crossed my mind. Our experience was by and large a very positive one. We worked as a team, and our roles were distinct, with him (Singh) leading the government and I leading the party," she said.

On Emergency
According to The Hindu, Gandhi writes in her memoir about how Sanjay Gandhi's name became synonymous with the Emergency.

"It was not only Sanjay. There was a lot of pressure from her senior colleagues and I think there were very few people around her (Indira Gandhi) like Rajiv who had a different point of view. I think eventually my mother-in-law began to understand the situation through her own wisdom and took actions to remedy it," she said.

Memoir to be released on Nov 10
Belonging: A Journey of Love, published by HarperCollins India, is a personal memoir in which politics serves as the backdrop or, as Gandhi describes it, "a kind of framework". Last month, Gandhi had said that others had spent decades telling her story and that it was now her turn. She had also remarked that there would inevitably be some "tamasha" when her memoir was released on November 10.

HarperCollins India will publish the 544-page memoir on November 10, ending the uncertainty surrounding its Indian release following a deadlock between the author's representatives and Penguin Random House India (PRHI). PRHI, which had initially expressed interest in publishing the memoir, later announced that it would not be the book's Indian publisher. The controversy emerged amid reports of differences between the publisher and the author's representatives over editorial changes to the manuscript.

Several Congress leaders had raised concerns over possible government pressure and freedom of expression. Some alleged that Penguin India had been pressured to remove sections relating to Prime Minister Modi, the RSS and China's alleged "occupation" of Indian territory during the Modi regime.

PRHI clarified that it had been "really keen" to publish the book, describing it as a "hard-won acquisition", but eventually decided to withdraw due to a "stalemate over a particular issue". The publisher denied any external pressure but declined to disclose the nature of the disagreement, citing confidentiality clauses and its agreement with the author.

The book begins with Gandhi's childhood in post-war Veneto, Italy, and traces her journey to Cambridge, where she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. The memoir recounts her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi and her introduction to her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It also describes her efforts to adapt to life in India, including learning Hindi, wearing saris and familiarising herself with Indian food and culture.

The book covers major tragedies that shaped the Gandhi family, including Sanjay Gandhi's death in a plane crash, Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991. It also explores the political developments surrounding the Congress-led alliance's victory in the 2004 general election, when Sonia Gandhi declined the prime minister's post and instead led the party and its alliance, which governed the country for a decade.