New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has recalled opposing her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s elevation to the position of prime minister, saying she decided to write her memoir to correct what she described as “invented or exaggerated” accounts of her life over the years.
In a second video released ahead of the launch of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sonia also acknowledged that the book could spark controversy, saying there is bound to be a “tamasha” when it comes out.
“When my husband was asked to become the prime minister, which I was totally against,” Sonia says in the video shared on social media.
The book is scheduled to be released on November 10.
There’s bound to be some tamasha when this book comes out. After all, others have spent decades telling my “story”, now it’s my turn. pic.twitter.com/jDy5vBI8ey
— Sonia Gandhi (@SoniaGandhi) October 27, 2026
Explaining why she wrote the book, Sonia said much of what had been written about her was inaccurate. “Well, I felt that since a lot had been written about me and a lot of it was not quite correct. It was either invented or exaggerated. So, it gave me a feel of being able to now put down my story and describe facts and things as they really were,” she said.
Sonia acknowledged that the memoir could alter public perceptions of her, and she was prepared for criticism. “Some people may change their views about me. Some people’s views may become worse, but that is what it is, that is what happens when you write a book or when you are in public life,” she said.
“There’s bound to be some tamasha when this book comes out. After all, others have spent decades telling my ‘story’, now it’s my turn,” she said.
In the video, Sonia is seen leafing through the memoir before admitting she was unsure how much of her life to reveal. “I don’t know if I should tell the whole story,” she said.
The 544-page memoir traces Sonia’s journey from her childhood in Italy to her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi and her decades in Indian politics. It also revisits the tragedies that marked the Gandhi family, including the assassinations of former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The book also covers Sonia’s political career, including the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s victory in the 2004 general election, after which she declined the prime minister’s post and Manmohan Singh took over.
Sonia Gandhi’s memoir was earlier caught in a controversy with publisher Penguin Random House India. The disagreement was centred on passages referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the India-China border standoff and communal tensions. Penguin said the two sides could not reach an understanding on a particular issue, while denying any external pressure, as alleged by the Congress.
Sonia has recently joined Instagram and X, where she has been sharing posts about the memoir. She made her X debut with a tender memory of meeting Rajiv in a Cambridge restaurant, where, she says, her journey of love began.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
After decades of running the country as a personal fiefdom and turning Indian politics into a multi-generational tamasha, she now packages her self-serving ‘reluctance’ into a paid PR stunt to sell a 500-page catalog of ‘sacrifices’. This promotion itself is just another act in her unending tamasha forced upon the public.