New Delhi:Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has said that her differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi are ideological rather than personal. The remarks appear in her autobiography, Belonging: A Journey of Love, which was released on Tuesday. The book addresses a range of personal and political matters.
Describing her interactions with the Prime Minister, Gandhi writes that despite his 12 years in office, she has virtually no contact with him. The two meet only occasionally at official events, where Modi speaks little and the two exchange greetings of “Namaste.” On one occasion, after she was discharged from hospital, he asked after her health.
Gandhi writes that Modi is fighting for the country from his own perspective, just as she is fighting in accordance with her own ideology. She says her convictions were shaped by the service, sacrifice, traditions, freedom and equality she witnessed in her family, while Modi formed his outlook from the thinking of RSS ideologues and from his upbringing and experiences. “There is nothing personal in this,” she writes.
Pranab Mukherjee’s prime ministerial ambition
Addressing her role during the UPA years, Gandhi rejects the criticism that she steered the government from behind the scenes. She also reveals that the late President Pranab Mukherjee once harboured hopes of becoming Prime Minister.
According to the book, Mukherjee had a disagreement with P. Chidambaram, then Finance Minister, and voiced his displeasure to her in 2010. Gandhi writes that she was surprised when Mukherjee remarked that it might be time to change the government’s leadership. She says she understood this to be a veiled expression of his wish to become Prime Minister, but chose not to pursue the conversation.
Indira Gandhi’s temper
Gandhi also recounts her relationship with her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who she says was quick to anger and whom she initially feared. She recalls an occasion when a staff member forgot to convey details of an important appointment and was made to stand in a corner of the room, and another when Indira Gandhi threw a plate at the dining table.
“I sat trembling where I was, while Rajiv and Sanjay silently looked on,” she writes, adding that Rajiv reassured her that his mother’s anger passed in a moment. Gandhi says that once she came to know Indira Gandhi fully, she understood her better, noting that the former Prime Minister was very fond of saris.