New Delhi: Indira Gandhi was worried that Maneka was encouraging Sanjay’s political activities rather than restraining him, Sonia Gandhi writes in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love. She describes Maneka’s exit from the Gandhi household as a series of events that played out like what one would today refer to as a “reality show”.
Recalling a conversation between her mother-in-law and then Cabinet Secretary P.N. Dhar, Sonia says Indira had remarked about her younger daughter-in-law Maneka: “Uske abhi se par nikalne lage hain (she has started growing wings already).”
Sonia also accuses Maneka of spreading stories about her and Rajiv through journalists with whom Maneka was in touch. “As far as she was concerned, we were enemies. She spread stories about us through journalists with whom she was in touch,” Sonia writes.
The allegation that angered the family most, Sonia says, was that Rajiv and she had planned to leave the country after the Congress lost the 1977 general election. “The one that galled us most was the outright lie that Rajiv and I had intended to flee the country when the elections were lost,” she writes.
Sonia traces the differences back to Maneka and Sanjay’s relationship, which began in 1973 when they met at a school friend’s engagement party. Maneka was ten years younger than Sanjay, and was still a minor when he told Indira he wanted to marry her. “My mother-in-law felt that he, being older and set in his ways, and Maneka, being so much younger, would find adjustment difficult,” Sonia writes.
The two got engaged in July 1974 and married in September that year. Sonia recalls that Sanjay picked Maneka’s engagement ring from his mother’s jewellery box, describing it as “a heart-shaped opal encircled by tiny rubies”. Indira also gave Maneka the fabric for her wedding sari.
Sonia’s initial impression of Maneka was that of a lively young woman. “Maneka was a high-spirited and talkative girl, full of zest,” she writes. But the relationship between the two daughters-in-law deteriorated over time. Sonia says she believed there was room for both in the family. “As far as I was concerned, we were equal daughters of the house, and there was space enough for both of us, but she probably saw it as a putdown,” she writes.
She also recalls tensions between Sanjay and Maneka, including arguments in which Maneka would use expletives when she was angry. Sonia writes: “They embarrassed him and shocked us.”
Indira also questioned Sanjay over decisions he had taken without her knowledge. Maneka intervened in the argument, but withdrew when Indira challenged her to deny what had been said. “She quickly retreated, but her animosity towards us only increased,” Sonia writes.
After Sanjay died in an aircraft crash in June 1980, Maneka’s political ambitions became another point of friction. Sonia says Indira was concerned about the efforts to secure a political role for Maneka, who was then 23 and had a three-month-old son, Varun. “But it became clear that she had her sights set elsewhere,” Sonia writes.
The disagreement came to a head in March 1981, when Maneka organised Varun’s first birthday party at the home of Vasundhara Raje. Sonia describes Raje as a staunch RSS supporter and a political opponent of Indira. She also links the episode to the sale of Maneka’s magazine, Surya, to an RSS worker.
Maneka eventually left the Gandhi household following a confrontation with Indira over her political activities. “The manner in which the whole incident was manipulated, the propaganda circus that followed, turned that sordid event into what would be termed today a ‘reality show’,” Sonia writes.
The differences continued over Varun. Sonia recalls that the family approached the courts to secure visiting rights. When Varun was four, Indira asked Sonia to leave gifts for him at his nursery school. Sonia says Maneka subsequently accused her in the newspapers of having been sent to kidnap the child.
Maneka contested the 1984 Lok Sabha election against Rajiv as an independent candidate but lost. She later joined V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal in 1988 and the BJP in 2004.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)