Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has claimed that the country’s democratic fabric and institutions have suffered “great damage” over the past 12 years, according to news agency Press Trust of India. She said restoring the systems to health would take time even after the Narendra Modi government leaves office.
In an interview with The Hindu ahead of the launch of her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of LoveGandhi said people were becoming restless and recognising the damage. “But I am optimistic and I know that the people of India will welcome a return to proper governance,” she said.
“Over the last twelve years great damage has been done to the fabric of our country, our democracy and our institutions. Even after this government goes, it will take time to restore our systems back to health and great effort from political parties,” the former Congress president said.
Asked about the Congress’s decline and its current position and prospects, Gandhi said she was not pessimistic. “Consider that the Congress party and other opposition parties have not had a level playing field since this government came to power,” she said.
“Take into account the complete stranglehold they have on all institutions, especially the Election Commission, their control of mainstream media, their money power and their exploitation of religion,” she added.
Gandhi said the Congress was continuing its fight and making progress. “In fact, it is the only party that has had the resilience to withstand this onslaught,” she said.
She said that Congress workers and leaders had faced “persecution of all kinds”. “And yet, in every village and every district, Congressmen and women are still fighting for the values enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.
Gandhi also said that recent months had provided ample proof that many elections had been “stolen” and that people were becoming more aware of it. “The Congress is working with like-minded parties, and our prospects are improving day by day,” she told PTI.
Published by HarperCollins India, Belonging: A Journey of Love is a personal memoir in which politics provides the background or “a kind of framework”, as Gandhi describes it.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the lessons the Congress should draw from his rise, Gandhi said: “It’s true that he comes from a very different ideological world. But there are many ways that people succeed in politics within the Congress party, take for example Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. I don’t think we have much to learn from the RSS.”
On whether she had considered how the policies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the party’s strategy might have differed had she accepted the prime minister’s post in 2004, Gandhi said the thought had never crossed her mind.
“Our experience was by and large a very positive one. We worked as a team, and our roles were distinct, with him leading the government and I leading the party,” she said, referring to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Last month, Gandhi said others had spent decades telling her story and that it was now her turn. She also said there was bound to be some “tamasha” when the memoir was released on November 10.
HarperCollins India is set to publish the 544-page memoir in India on November 10, ending uncertainty over its domestic publication following an “impasse” between Gandhi’s representatives and Penguin Random House India. The latter had initially been keen to publish the memoir but later said it would not be its Indian publisher.
The dispute arose amid reports of differences between the publisher and the author’s representatives over changes to the manuscript. Several Congress leaders raised concerns about government pressure and freedom of expression, with some alleging that Penguin India had been pressured to remove sections relating to Modi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and China’s “occupation” of Indian territory during the Modi government.
Penguin Random House India said it had been “really keen” to publish the book and described it as a “hard-won acquisition”, but decided to withdraw because of a “stalemate over a particular issue”. It maintained that there had been no external pressure and declined to disclose the nature of the impasse, citing confidentiality clauses and its agreement with the author.
The memoir begins with Gandhi’s childhood in post-war Veneto, Italy, and traces her journey to Cambridge, where she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. It recounts their marriage, her introduction to her mother-in-law and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, and her efforts to adjust to life in India, including learning Hindi, wearing saris and adapting to Indian food and culture.
The book covers the tragedies that transformed the Gandhi family, including Sanjay Gandhi’s death in a plane crash, Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991.
It also examines the political events surrounding the Congress-led alliance’s victory in the 2004 elections, when Sonia Gandhi declined to become prime minister and instead led the party and its alliance, which governed India for a decade.
The memoir combines her personal journey with her account of the Congress’s time in government and her assessment of the country’s current political and institutional situation.
– Ends
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