Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving president of the Congress party, which has governed India during most of its post-Independence decades. She was born in Italy, and educated at Cambridge University, where she met Rajiv Gandhi, who was then the son of prime minister Indira Gandhi. The two married in 1968.
After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, during campaigning for that year’s general elections, Sonia Gandhi initially stayed away from politics, but in 1998, she was chosen as the president of the Congress party. Under her leadership, in 2004, a Congress-led coalition came to power at the Centre. She famously declined to be prime minister — her foreign birth had become a politically controversial issue — and instead chose the economist Manmohan Singh. She was then named the chairperson of the coalition, which was called the United Progressive Alliance or the UPA.
Sonia Gandhi won her first Lok Sabha election in 1999, representing Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, a family stronghold. From 2004, she has represented Rae Bareli as an MP in the Lok Sabha. In 2024, she announced she was contesting elections from the Rajya Sabha, the indirectly elected house of Parliament, signalling her stepping back from electoral politics.
We Indian are habitual of living under Monarchy, Same family has ruled 50% of time of so called democratic India. Politics has become source of power, business and corruption.
Kindly can we move on!
A recent lecture by Shri Jairam Ramesh highlighted the role Prof P N Haksar played in the first, many would say the finest, of the three phases of Mrs Gandhi’s premiership. Almost like Prof Higgins working on Eliza Dolittle, preparing her for the greatness that lay ahead of her. After he was eased out, likely due to the growing shadow of Sanjay Gandhi, it all began to come apart. Perhaps that is also when, with respect, Mrs Gandhi began to lose her moral compass. 2. Her disdain for, and destruction of, institutions, the very converse of Pandit Nehru, will be the most toxic part of Mrs Gandhi’s legacy. The judiciary by and large redeemed itself, created the moat of the collegium, but others have still not fully recovered. 3. On the economy, whether her socialism was born out of conviction or political opportunism, one cannot say. However, her return to power in 1980 coincided with China’s opening up in 1978. Had she and then Rajiv Gandhi altered course, the differential that has grown would not have been so large. Durga she was …
Like good wine, Shri Shekhar Gupta’s columns age well …