Ashwin Varde had once written that its “an arduous task to summarize the life of someone as enigmatic as Sonia Gandhi….” Surely her earlier past-life has been an enigma but believe me if one gets to meet her now, personally, her mysterious life fades deep down into her charming,calm personality. And all the mystery gets solved, well not an exaggeration but a fact.
Lets go through the enigmatic journey of Mrs Gandhi from asmall-town pretty girl to one of the most dominant and powerful personality in politics today.
20 years back, who would have thought that Sonia Gandhi,wife of late Rajiv Gandhi would be the next most influential and dominant leader in the Congress. Today she is regarded as one of the most powerful woman in the world. All possible because of her presence in the political scenario of world’s largest democracy-India.
Mrs Gandhi was born as Sonia Maino in a quiet remote village of Orbassano near Turin , Italy
Jab they met
Many say that the person who introduced them was none other than the late Madhavrao Scindia (Rajiv’s close friend and fellow student). But Mrs Gandhi herself wrote that it was a common German friend who brought them together.Moving away from her quiet and serene childhood. It was her movement from Orbassano to Cambridge Cambridge Cambridge that Rajiv Gandhi (son of the then PM of India
One detail writing about their first meeting was given by Tahir Jahangir in Friday Times. “ On a Saturday evening in October 1964, two young Italian women decided to go out to dinner together.
They were studying English at the Bell School of Languages in Cambridge , England Regent Street
They wanted a table by the window, but all the tables by the ground floor window were occupied. So Luigi led the two young women through the restaurant, past the round table in front of the cash desk, where a group of Indian and Pakistani students were discussing politics. As the girls passed the round table, they made a visible impact on the students. A sudden hush fell on the company and all talk of politics was forgotten.
Soon the conversation resumed but it was noticed that Rajiv was lost in thought and did not participate. He had a dazed expression on his face. He got hold of a paper napkin and a biro and carefully began to write out a poem on the napkin.He then called Luigi and asked him to get the best bottle of wine the restaurant had. He tipped Luigi heavily and told him to go up to the girls, present the bottle of wine, pour it out, then present the napkin with the poem to the girl and no prizes for guessing, it was Mrs Gandhi.
That first encounter with the future Prime Minister of India has remained imprinted on her mind as the most romantic moment of her life. Mrs Gandhi herself has described her experience “ As our eyes met for the first time, I could feel my heart pounding. We greeted each other and as far as I was concerned, it was love at first sight.” She later told her family: ‘ I’ve fallen in love with an Indian. He is a sportsman. He is the blue prince I always dreamt of.”
For Rajiv too, love was in the air. He wasted no time in trying to introduce Sonia to his mother Indira Gandhi, when she visited London
But like any other love story, this one too had impediments. It was said that Sonia’s father tries to break off his daughter’s love. He was quoted telling her daughter ‘Don’t even talk about this.’ ‘Not another word about this. Better that you go to work somewhere.’
Throughout their period of courtship, Rajiv romanced the lady like a perfect gentleman would have. They would go out for outings quite often. Rajiv eventually won the heart of Sonia’s parents with his earnestness. After three years of courtship, Sonia and Rajiv were bonded in holy matrimony in 1968 in New Delhi
Favourite Bahu of Indira Gandhi
It was evident that Sonia was Mrs Indira Gandhi’s favourite all along. Sonia had once shared to Shekher Gupta on NDTV channel- “ I remember when I got married, my mother came to the wedding and she stayed for a month. And when she was going, obviously it was a sad moment for me. And my mother-in-law (Indira Gandhi) sent a little note to me: ‘Hi Sonia, this is just to tell you that we all love you’. And that totally melted me. It gave me a lot of strength, that I am loved and cared for .” Both the saas and bahu shared mutual love and respect. It is said that during their first meet, Indira spoke to Sonia in French, to put her at ease and that broke the ice. For Indira nothing was more important than her son’s emotions and feeling. And moreover she herself had been in love so she understood Sonia’s predicament nad more so since there was so much at stake for her.
Marriage
When it came to legitimizing the relationship, Indira took the first step. She invited Sonia to India
Sonia was seen wearing a pink saree, which was the same saree that Indira Gandhi had worn for her wedding. It is said that the saree was made from the cotton which Nehru had spun while in prison.
The Nehru-Gandhi tradition was beautifully followed and Sonia lived up to this symbolic gift. One interesting and inspiring aspect of this marriage was the secularism. It was a testimony to the Nehru-Gandhi family’s secularism that no fuss was raised when Indira married a Parsi or when Rajiv wed a Catholic.
Role of Bachchans
An interesting fact of this marriage is the role of the Bachchans. Teji Bachchan(Amitabh’s mother) played the part of the brides’s mother. Sonia was staying with the Bachchans before the wedding. Various pre-wedding ceremonies were held in the Bachchan’s government bungalow. Harivanshrai Bachchan was then a Member of Parliament. Those we
re the days when Amitabh had not yet joined the film world. Amitabh Bachchan was a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, he looked upon Sonia as his bhabhi. The Bachchans had played a very significant role in the marriage and perhaps that explains why superstar Amitabh Bachchan remained Rajiv’s closest friend right till the end. He was seen during Rajiv’s funeral too.
After Marriage
It is said that Sonia was quick to learn the Indian customs and traditions and soon adjusted well in the family. She soon won everyones heart. As time went by, the bond between the saas and the bahu grew stronger but there is one incident which made it more strong and it was the year when Sonia had a miscarriage, this incident brought them closer. Rahul was born in1970 and she recalls this day ‘ I had been married for 2 years, I was mother of a young baby, rahul. It left a great impression on me…..’
Soon she realized that life as a Gandhi bahu wasn’t that difficult and this she credited to Indira Gandhi. Sonia tells “My mother-in-law was very understanding and she tackled me very cleverly unlike perhaps some other mothers-in-laws I know who force their daughters-in-law to be, you know, ‘you have to do this……’ She allowed me to be myself. She didn’t force me into things that she felt I could be uncomfortable with” .
Sonia v/s Maneka
But all was not well in the Gandhi household. The silent hostilities between Sonia and Maneka (which still do exist) were known to be open secretin the political circles. These women were exact opposites. Sonia was a shy introvert while Maneka was a completely extrovert.Maneka always displayed a keen interest in politics whereas Sonia shunned it. Their temperaments were different too.
Emergency
Sonia never dreamt of joining politics nor did her husband but what did they know of their destiny. Years passed by, then came the Emergency of 1975, still Rajiv and Sonia were a silent observer. Then came the 1977 General Elections which Sanjay led the march. Indira Gandhi and her advisers went in for elections so confidently, they did not have any doubts that the electorates would vote for the Congress. But they were wrong. Congress was defeated with huge margins. This period was crucial in Sonia’s life because she got to spend a lot of time with Indira and they almost became like confidantes.
But the Janata Party did not long last in the government and thus Indira made a spectacular comeback in the General Elections in 1980. but this time she had to face defection in her Cong party, which was said to have taken toll of her. She erred with her decisions, her administrative abilities became weaker and one weakness she developed was the dependence on her son Sanjay. Which is why Sanjay’s sudden and untimely demise in a plane crash on the 23rd June 1980 left her totally numb and paralyzed. She had lost her son cum the most trusted person in politics.
Rajiv enters politics
This tragic incident marked the emergence of Rajiv Gandhi in the mainstream politics and the harsh divide within the family. On one side Sonia was totally against Rajivs entry into politics.She opposed the move and threatened to leave. Friends had to intervene, spoke of Indira’s plightand somehow managed to convince Sonia to stay. Sonia had threatened to divorce Rajiv if he ever entered politics because she felt she would be losing him. Sonia has on record said , “ For the first time, there was tension between Rajiv and me . I fought like a tigress for him, for us and our children, above all, for our freedom.”
Sonia was also heard saying that she would rather have her children beg in the streets than Rajiv going into politics.” But eventually Rajiv resigned from Indian Airlines to join politics.
He stood for the bye-elections in Amethi, the seat his brother had left vacant. As expected he won hands down. The interest had started showing in his face and so did Sonia start supporting him whole-heartedly. She believed that since he has got into it, he had to do it right.
Just when people thought Gandhis are back to business there was another storm in the making and this time it was ManekaGandhi.
Maneka the rebel
Maneka was rebelling against the decision of choosing Rajiv instead of her after Sanjay’s death. She couldn’t understand why Indira had opted for Rajiv and not her. The situation and the differences in the Gandhi household went to such an extent that Maneka was asked to leave the house. Lets not get into much details into this particular incident though it’s a very interesting incident. After this event Maneka joined Janata Party most probably to hit back hard at Indira and cause her more embarrassment.
Assasination of Indira Gandhi
This happened during March 1984 and just after 3 months Indira ordered ‘Operation Blue Star’ which eventually led to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards on 31st of October 1984. It was a shock for the nation. And if we can recall what she had said just the night before 31st at a political rally.“I don’t mind if my life goes in the service of the nation. If I die today, every drop of my blod will invigorate the nation.” Chilling isn’t it. Could she sense her final hour? This was more shocking to Sonia as she was in the same house when this event took place. It seems at first, when she heard the gunshots,she passed it off thinking the noise to be of some fireworks. She realized the gravity of the situation only when a few domestic helpers screamed out for help. It was Sonia Gandhi who took the bullet-ridden body of Indira Gandhi to the hospital. Rajiv was supposedly out of town that time.
Rajiv as PM of India
It was a tragic day for the Gandhi family. And soon after 12 hours of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as the new Prime Minister and thus a new era revolutionized. Rajiv had to start with such a painful situation. A situation when India
We could see an emotionally charged Rajiv appealing to the nation to remain calm and exercise the maximum restraint. He appealed that ‘we should not let our emotions get the better of us’. Soon the situation calmed and Rajiv was supported whole-heartedly by the entire nation.
But for Sonia there was no sense of calm. She confessed to Shekhar Gupta that “after my mother-in-law was killed, I knew that he too would be killed.” But things on this front too calmed with time.
Sonia’s first brush with active politics was when she traveled and campaigned for her husband during the General Elections. Rajiv contested from Amethi once again and this time his political rival was his own family member-Maneka Gandhi. Rajiv won the seat very comfortably with a whopping 83 percent votes.
But Rajiv had lots to do work which he did his best to certain extent. Good roads, Maruti replacing ambassadors, liberalization of trade, television, privatization og programming on DD, two-wheelers, refrigerators,STD/PCO booth, communication revolution and the Information technology were some of the achievements of Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure.
But not far were the controversies. Like the Coomar Narain espionage case, Bofors casehis decision to involve himself and the Indian Army into the the internal Sinhalese-Tamil dispute literally cost him his life.
"Is he alive"- Sonia
Rajiv ,as feared by Sonia, was killed brutally on may 21st 1991. His assassination was a well-planned and cleverly maneuvered act. For Sonia it was a turning point in life. Sonia was at home in New Delhi
This trauma made her almost reclusive. Her children were her source of strength in this hour of tragedy. Rahul and Priyanka shielded her from the outside world. The Congress Party wanted her to take charge immediately after this but she flatly refused.
Threat to life became synonymous with the Gandhi name. Indeed, threat to her life wasn’t something to be taken casually and her children knows that. That’s why they kept her out of the spotlight all along.
Their fears were justified with reports of “Recent arrests both in Indian and SriLanka reveal that the LTTE was likely to have made serious attempt to assassinate Sonia Gandhi. The LTTE assessed that if Sonia Gandhi assumes power, she would assist the Sri Lankan Government militarily like her husband to crush the LTTE in order to avenge the death of her husband”
Many attempts were made by senior party leaders of the Congress to Sonia Gandhi but none succeeded as she made it very clear that she was not interested in joining poltics. The very reason for her no to politics was the ‘safety of her children’.
After Indira Gandhi and Rajiv’s assassination, Sonia didn’t want to take any chances with her children’s security. Rahul
and Priyanka did their schooling at private schools in New Delhi
It was said that Sonia deliberately disappeared from the scene. She was to be seen only during official ceremonies and especially those related to Rajiv.
After Rajiv’s death, the first celebration in the Gandhi household was that of Priyanka’s wedding to childhood sweetheart Robert. This wedding did come with some controversy. Robert disowned his father and brother stating that they were using his relationship with Priyanka Gandhi for their personal gains.
The same was on the political lines. The condition of Congress party was deteriorating day by day. Defections and many workers leaving Congress either to join BJP or other regional parties. I think after Rajiv’s death, this state of the Congress made her sad.
Finally Sonia takes the plunge into politics
It was in 1998 when Sonia Gandhi accepted the post of President of Congress. One reason for her joining the party was to correct things and carry on the tradition that Rajiv had envisioned. She had explained the reson for taking the plunge. “ I have photographs of my husband and my mother-in-law in my office. And each time I walked past those photographs, I felt that I wasn’t responding to my duty,the duty to this family and to the country. I felt I was being cowardly to just sit and watch things deteriorate in the Congress fro which my mother-in-law and the whole family lived and died. So, at that point I took the decision. There were some party people saying that I ought to help out the party. But it was morethan that. It was this feeling of responsibility towards the family. And the country.”
And another important thing that happened during this time was that the relationship with Amitabh Bachchan had began to deteriorate. As Amitabh tried his best to make her understand that the Congress party was only using her to keep its own head above the water. Sonia understood what Amitabh was trying to say but she was sure about what she wanted to do.
It was touching to see both the children supporting her move. Priyanka rallied around Sonia saying, “ My mother entered politics because she genuinely felt that what my father and grandmother had given their lives for was being threatened”. Rahul who was outside the country then,gave up his job and returned homeland to support Sonia.
Sonia Gandhi's Hiccups
But her entry into active politics was not an easy one. Her foreign origin has always been an issue raked up by the opposition especially the BJP. And very shocking to Mrs Gandhi, when this same issue was voiced by trusted aides like PA Sangma, Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar.
She failed to stake claim to form a government in 1999 when AIADMK pulled out of BJP government. The elections in October 1999 also spelt bad news for Sonia and her party as they bagged only 112 seat across the country,which is considered to be the worst. She entered the centrestage of politics though she stumbled in the beginning but there were some closest advisers like late Madhavrao Scindia, Manmohan Singh, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Maragaret Alva who on their own way played a part in fine-tuning Sonia’s skill as the Leader of the Opposition.
Sonia displayed enormous courage when she took the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee head-on with her scathing attack on the government for filing a charge-sheet against Rajiv Gandhi’s name on the Bofors issue. “ the government has been selectve and this is nothing but political vendetta. What we will never tolerate is the framing of a man who isn’t here to defend himself,” she said with her voice choked with emotion.
Congress saw this as Sonia’s first outburst in national politics.. Soon Sonia’s active involvement in the party was paying dividends. She gained respect for her fighting spirit .
By 2002, Congress had gained power in 14 states and UT that covered more than half the country. In addition, the Congress swept the Delhi Municipal polls in 2002 thus adding boost and confidence to her and the party.
In 2003 Sonia led the no-confidence motion against the NDA though it was rejected but this move was seen as Sonia’s biggest revolt until then. Singling out Vajpayee, she asked, “ The PM had promised one crore jobs every year. I would not like to remind him about his promises because he gets very irritated…..”
December 2003 was another moment for the Congress to worry as it lost power in 3 out of 4 states that went to the polls. But the BJP was all confident that they called up for early elections.
So much was at stake. Sonia Gandhi finally decided to bring in Rahul Gandhi into the fray alongwith Priyanka Gandhi. The exit polls by the leading channels had all winning numbers for the BJP but this was proven wrong when the results started coming in.
The nation was stunned as it was clear that Congress and its allies were brought to power. And thus a new power called SONIA GANDHI emerged.
One of the touching moment was when Rahul Gandhi, after winning the Amethi seat by over 3 lakh votes, said, “ My mother is my hero. My family has faced personal attacks for last 50 years. We are not interested in them…..” and the defining moment was when Sonia Gandhi renounced the post of Prime Minister and announced Manmahon Singh as her choice for the Prime Minister’s post.
Many say this step was a masterstroke. Well indeed it was a masterstroke by Sonia Gandhi which almost made her a saint-like figure , it added more to her stature. And thus we see in Sonia Gandhi the power of determination and perseverance. And who would deny that the ultimate power of the government lies in her hand.
Happy Birthday to Sonia Madam. Wish her all the success in her policies and her works. God bless her and her family.
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