Sonia Gandhi says she barely knows Prime Minister Modi, memoir casts rivalry as a battle of ideas
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In her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi says she has had little personal contact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and describes their differences as a political contest between competing visions for India.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi said she has had almost no personal interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stressing that their meetings amount to formal greetings at official events. In her 544-page memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, she writes that the two exchange a formal "namaste" and that Modi often looks away, avoiding eye contact.
"To this day, I've had practically no real contact with him. We meet at semi-official gatherings – for instance, at the Speaker's chamber," Gandhi wrote.
Gandhi presents their political contest as a clash between two visions for India. She describes Modi’s vision as different from her own emphasis on inclusiveness, secularism and social justice, and insists that the rivalry is not personal.
"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 wrote.
She also notes areas of common experience, saying she understood Modi’s discomfort with elite circles in Delhi and acknowledging his rise from an underprivileged background through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Gandhi says Modi’s critical remarks about Jawaharlal Nehru stem from his RSS conditioning.
The memoir traces Gandhi’s life from her childhood in post-war Italy, through her education in the United Kingdom, her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, and her entry into Indian politics. It recounts personal losses, including the deaths of her first-born child, Indira Gandhi in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, as well as her battle with breast cancer.
In a prior statement to The Hindu, Gandhi said she wrote the book to present her own account rather than respond to external narratives. Her son, Rahul Gandhi, posted a tribute on X, praising her six decades of public service.
HarperCollins announced that the book will be available in bookstores across India from 10 a.m. on November 10.