Sonia Gandhi’s memoir gets the facts wrong: 5 errors in Belonging
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, contains factual errors relating to election figures, political designations, organisational history and dates.
In the concluding section of the book, Gandhi reflects on her family and the political journey of her children. While recounting their roles in Parliament and the Opposition, she describes Rahul Gandhi as a “four-term member of Parliament” (page 493). However, Rahul Gandhi’s most recent electoral victory from Rae Bareli in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls made him a five-term MP.
Gandhi makes another factual error while recounting a 2010 episode involving differences between Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram. She refers to Chidambaram as the “Finance Minister” and writes about Mukherjee suggesting that it might be time for a change at the top, which she interpreted as a hint of his prime ministerial ambitions.
However, in 2010, Mukherjee was the Union Finance Minister, while Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. Chidambaram returned to the Finance Ministry only in July 2012, after Mukherjee resigned to contest the presidential election.
Gandhi also gets the 1984 Lok Sabha election figures wrong. Recalling the election held in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, she writes that the Congress won “405 seats out of 544 parliamentary seats in the Lower House” (page 270). The party had won 404 seats in an election held for 542 Lok Sabha seats.
In a passage discussing the ideological differences between the Congress and the RSS, Gandhi describes the organisation as “founded in 1921” (page 342). The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was founded in 1925.
Gandhi also gives an incorrect year for the death of former Congress leader Ahmed Patel. Recalling his role as her political secretary and his work as a coordinator between the Congress and its allies, she writes that he “fell victim to the Covid epidemic in 2022” (page 399). Patel, however, died on 25 November 2020.
Shivakumar’s VIP darshan sparks anger, footwear flies at temple screens
Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar faced public ire over his decision to avail himself of VIP darshan for himself and his family members at the Hasanamba festival earlier this month. Devotees, who had already been waiting in line for hours, were peeved when Shivakumar was taken directly to the sanctum sanctorum for a special puja.
What made matters worse was that large screens projected Shivakumar and his family receiving uninterrupted darshan before the deity.
“The Chief Minister should do good for others. That’s why he is the Chief Minister, not by troubling others. Only he needs God. He should inform us that he wants to be the only one (in the temple) and no one else should leave home,” a woman was heard screaming at the screen.
Meanwhile, other devotees began hurling their footwear at the screen displaying Shivakumar performing the puja.
Outside the temple, a section of the crowd also chided the Chief Minister over recent price hikes in essential commodities and services, including milk and bus fares.
Vijay forgets Nehru on Children’s Day?
Tamil Nadu’s first statewide cake distribution for Children’s Day reached 61.84 lakh students, teachers and staff in government and aided schools, at a cost of Rs 9.27 crore. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay personally launched the initiative in Perambur, handing out cakes and greeting cards.
The cards and packaging carried his photograph, a small cartoon of children and his signature. There was no picture or mention of Jawaharlal Nehru, whose birthday is celebrated as Children’s Day.
The visual hierarchy was unmistakable, with the Chief Minister occupying the centre of the box, turning it into yet another government freebie with good branding for Vijay, but little connection to the occasion for which it was distributed.
Further, for 11.11 lakh anganwadi children, there was only sweet pongal and no cake.
Vijay has cultivated an image of reluctance towards personal promotion—the “silent government”, limited media interaction and an insistence that students do not need politics, and that posters and banners should not be put up for self-promotion. But the cake boxes conveyed otherwise. When the State spends public money on a festive treat for millions of children, the packaging still finds space for the Chief Minister’s face and none for the historical figure the day is meant to honour.
The gesture is sweet. The branding is thorough. For a leader who says he wants no promotion, the cake boxes suggest that the message travels better when printed in colour and handed out with the treat.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
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