NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, that she has had “practically no real contact” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in more than 12 years, adding that he tends to look away when they meet face-to-face.
The 544-page memoir, published by HarperCollins India, was released on Tuesday. Gandhi describes her rare interactions with Modi at semi-official gatherings, including meetings in the Speaker's chamber at the end of Parliament sessions.
“When he comes face-to-face with me, we greet each other with a formal namaste. This is different from the past, when leaders across party divides would treat one another with cordiality. He tends to look away, avoiding eye contact,” she writes.
Gandhi also reflects on the ideological differences between the two leaders, describing their political contest as a clash between competing visions of India rather than a personal disagreement.
“He was fighting for his vision of India, and I for mine — an India against hegemony, an India that stands for inclusiveness, secularism, and social justice. It wasn't personal,” she writes.
On Modi's political background, Gandhi acknowledges that he “had certainly worked his way to power within the RSS from an underprivileged world”. She adds that his origins may not have been as humble as his public relations team had portrayed them.
The memoir also offers a detailed account of her decision in 2004 to decline the post of Prime Minister after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won the general election.
Gandhi writes that she had told her children months before the election that she would not take up the post. However, after the results, alliance leaders gathered at 10 Janpath and pressed her to reconsider.
Describing the meeting in Rajiv Gandhi's conference room, she says the leaders' tone was forceful and that she felt overwhelmed. She recalls eventually responding, “Theek hai,” almost inaudibly.
Rahul Gandhi, after learning of her decision through Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, reacted angrily, according to the memoir. Sonia Gandhi writes that she reversed her decision that night and later proposed Manmohan Singh's name for the post in Parliament.
She also recalls her relationship with her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, describing her occasional outbursts of anger. The incidents included a staff member being made to stand in a corner, a senior party leader being made to face a wall and a thali being pushed across a table in anger.
“Until I got to know her well, I'd quake in my seat,” Sonia Gandhi writes.
(With inputs from media reports)