New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi’s book Belonging: A Journey of Love has been released today. Sharing both her personal and political journey in the book, the former
Congress president has also rejected criticism of driving the UPA Government from behind during the tenure of former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
In her book, she also revealed how Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee in 2010, who went on to become the country’s President, had once revealed his intention to become the prime minister. Mukherjee had shocked her by saying that perhaps “it was time for a change at the top.”
Rejecting allegations that she was driving the UPA Government from behind, Sonia Gandhi revealed that she was clear that Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. She added that, as the Congress President, she could give her suggestions to him and differ with him if needed.
“Further. I was determined not to be under any circumstance the cause of a misunderstanding that could give our opponents occasion to rejoice and weaken our government,” she wrote further. As per her, there was an “unspoken division of responsibility” between then PM Manmohan Singh and her.
“A core group met weekly with the prime minister to ensure coordination between the two. Its other members were Pranab Mukheriee, who had been a minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet in the 70s; the politically insightful Arjun Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh; A K. Anthony, a former chief minister of Kerala: and Ahmed Patel. We also met regularly as members of the Strategy Group, set up to discuss issues to be taken up in Parliament. Sometimes Pranab ji, as I always called him, would stay back for a chat,” she wrote.
Sonia Gandhi added, “He (Pranab) had developed serious differences with the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and on one occasion, in 2010, I think after expressing his frustration, he shocked me with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for a change at the top, which I understood as a hint of his long-held desire to become prime minister.”
BJP slams Sonia Gandhi over new book
Meanwhile, the BJP on Tuesday slammed Sonia Gandhi over the book. BJP’s national spokesperson C R Kesavan wrote on X, “Will Smt. Sonia Gandhi’s memoir also reveal the truth behind her sudden visit to late Shri. K. Natwar Singh’s residence before his book was to be published? Excerpts from Shri. K. Natwar Singh’s 2014 autobiography ‘One Life Is Not Enough’ clearly states how uneasy and uncomfortable the Nehru-Gandhi family was about his account of certain events in May 2004, before the UPA Government was sworn in.”
He added, “Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra decided to meet him before his book release to discuss it, this sudden visit coming after eight and a half years! Why and what was Smt. Sonia Gandhi so apprehensive about what Shri. Natwar Singh would write in his book about events leading to the swearing in of the UPA Govt in 2004?”
