Hidden Hand

WHY DO CONGRESS leaders fear Sonia Gandhi? In her new book In Pursuit of Democracy, Najma Heptulla reveals the full extent of their paranoia. Heptulla, a former deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha and grand-niece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was a longtime Gandhi family loyalist. She eventually fell out of favour.

According to Heptulla, Sonia was upset with her after she was felicitated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other BJP leaders on being elected president of the Inter- Parliamentary Union, a global forum.

Heptulla left Congress in 2004 to join BJP. Veteran journalist Coomi Kapoor quotes Heptulla: “Sonia’s attitude was totally different from Indira Gandhi, who kept an open house and was accessible to all. Rajiv Gandhi too was far more accessible than his wife, but Congress workers were always fearful of being seen in the company of anyone perceived as antagonistic to the Congress’s first family. When Pranab Mukerjee’s [sic] daughter got married, only two people from the Congress attended. When Mukerjee’s [sic] son got married everyone from the party showed up, as he was back in favour.”

What explains this fear factor? Why are Congress leaders afraid of Sonia Gandhi?

Sonia came to India in February 1968 as the demure 21-year-old bride of Rajiv Gandhi, then an Indian Airlines pilot. She led a mostly quiet life through the 1970s, raising Rahul (born in 1970) and Priyanka (1972). The family lived in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s residence at 1 Safdarjung Road but rarely mixed with Congress leaders.

During the draconian Emergency in 1975-77, Sonia wanted to leave the country. Rajiv was in two minds. They eventually stayed on, socialising with a small group that included Rajiv’s close Doon School friend Suman Dubey and his wife. Rajiv continued flying for Indian Airlines.

Sonia’s life changed on June 23, 1980. Sanjay Gandhi’s death in a private plane crash would, in time, convert Sonia from a quiet daughter-in-law into a future political power centre. In June 1980, she was still only 33, Rajiv 35. He was now Indira Gandhi’s heir apparent.

Sonia feared the chaos of Indian politics into whose vortex she knew Rajiv would be sucked. In less than five years, Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Rajiv accepted his inheritance and was sworn in as prime minister the same day his mother was killed.

Sonia recognised the dangers that lay ahead. India in the mid-1980s was a cauldron of violence. Punjab was on fire and Indian peacekeeping troops would soon be drawn into the war between LTTE and the Sri Lankan army. Rajiv survived one assassination attempt on a visit to Colombo in July 1987. He did not survive a second attempt in May 1991.

Sonia went into a seven-year period of near-isolation to overcome her grief. She had been widowed at the age of 44. But the Sonia that emerged in 1998, now 51, was a changed person.

Sonia comes from a middle-class Italian family. Her father, Stefano Maino, served in the Italian army. Under the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, Italy was an ally of Nazi Germany during World War II. A mason by profession, Stefano continued building houses in Italy after the war. He sent daughter Sonia to England in 1963 to learn English and earn an independent living. Sonia was 17 years old.

Cut to the present. Why does the daughter of a middle-class Italian mason, with little ambition in her life till her husband Rajiv joined politics in 1981 by winning the Amethi by-election, evoke such fear among Congress leaders?

At the height of her power during UPA I and UPA 2, Sonia brooked no inner-party dissent. She was dismissive of Opposition leaders. In 2012, she forced LK Advani, then leader of the Opposition, to apologise in Parliament for daring to question the UPA government’s legitimacy.

Rahul Gandhi has imbibed more traits from his mother than from his father. Rajiv would have been astonished, even embarrassed, at the thought of his wife, son and daughter being members of Parliament at the same time.

Meanwhile, even leaders in Congress who are more talented than the Gandhi family trio remain silent over this exhibition of nepotism. Dissenters in Congress, they fear, will meet the fate of Najma Heptulla.

CongressIndian politicsLK AdvaniOpposition leadersSonia GandhiUPA