Sonia Gandhi Memoir: Why She Declined the PM Post in 2004
The Congress leader's book gives her own account of the 2004 days when allies urged her to lead the UPA government and she stepped aside.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Sonia Gandhi writes in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, released by HarperCollins India in New Delhi on 10 November, that she decided months before the 2004 Lok Sabha election that she would not become prime minister, even if the Congress-led alliance won. She says her son Rahul asked her directly whether she would accept the post and she answered, “Absolutely not!”, according to excerpts reported by several outlets.
Allies Pressed, Children Objected
The book says she kept the decision private during the campaign to avoid a leadership contest. After the UPA’s win in May 2004, alliance leaders came to her residence at 10 Janpath and urged her to reconsider. She writes that she said a hesitant “theek hai”, which the leaders took as a yes.
Priyanka Gandhi, who was outside the room, told Rahul. The two confronted their mother, and Rahul asked why she had given in to pressure. Daijiworld reports that both children opposed the idea, pointing to the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
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The Inner Voice and the Party Meeting
Sonia Gandhi recalls an inner voice telling her: “Sonia, be true to yourself. You’ve always known it. Just leave it!” She then told Rahul she had made up her mind, and he embraced her. She also writes that she was concerned the BJP would raise her foreign origin.
At the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting she told MPs the voice did not let her take the post. Some members crowded around the lectern and pleaded with her, she writes, and she struggled to continue before proposing Manmohan Singh. Singh served as prime minister from 2004 to 2014.
Memoir Row Since Before Release
The launch follows weeks of public attention on the book, which Penguin India had earlier backed out of publishing. IPB News reported on 7 November on her pre-release interviews, in which she said the last 12 years had harmed India’s institutions and BJP leaders replied the same day. Read that report for the political exchange so far, and see the Congress tag page for the party’s other recent stories.
The excerpts reported so far cover only the 2004 chapter. IPB News has not seen the full text, and the account is Sonia Gandhi’s own.
Source: Based on reporting by Daijiworld, Deccan Chronicle and News Karnataka.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
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