Didn't want Rajiv to be PM: Sonia Gandhi says there will be tamasha over her book

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said she was "totally against" her husband Rajiv Gandhi becoming Prime Minister, adding that her upcoming memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, is likely to trigger a "tamasha (commotion)" as it offers her account of events.

"When my husband was asked to become Prime Minister, which I was totally against," Sonia Gandhi said in a video posted on her social media platforms on Tuesday. Explaining why she decided to write the memoir, she said the book gave her an opportunity to put down her account of events as she experienced them.

"Some people may change their view about me. Some people's view may become worse, but that's what it is. That's what happens when you write a book or when you are in public life. There's bound to be a tamasha, as you would say it here," she said.

The remarks offer an early indication of the



potentially sensitive personal and political ground covered in the memoir, which traces Sonia Gandhi's journey from her childhood in Italy to her decades at the centre of Indian politics and is set to be published on November 10.

Her account is expected to revisit the defining moments of the Nehru-Gandhi family, including Rajiv Gandhi's entry into politics, the tragedies that shaped the family and her own decision to decline the Prime Minister's post after the Congress-led alliance won the 2004 general election.of events.

Sonia Gandhi's opposition to Rajiv becoming PM was first noted in Javier Moro's dramatized biographical novel, Red Sari. In the book, Sonia Gandhi is portrayed as viewing Rajiv Gandhi's decision to become Prime Minister as a "death sentence". The book described Sonia Gandhi breaking down in tears and trying to persuade him not to take the oath of office.