Sonia Gandhi has revealed in her new memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, released worldwide today, that she once “begged” her husband Rajiv Gandhi not to enter politics, but did not resist when her son Rahul Gandhi chose to devote his life to politics. The veteran leader writes that Rahul had a long-standing interest in politics and that he and Priyanka shared an enduring bond with Amethi, the family’s constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
In the memoir, Sonia Gandhi recalls that Rajiv took Rahul to Amethi several times as a schoolboy and later to expose him to the hard realities of rural life. Priyanka, she says, was present in Amethi through all of her elections, endearing herself to party workers and local people, though her priority was raising her young children and pursuing a postgraduate diploma in Buddhist studies.
Sonia Gandhi writes that Rahul would accompany her or his sister to Amethi whenever he returned to India, and both became familiar faces in the constituency. It was during those visits, she says, that Rahul found himself drawn to working there as a representative of the people. She notes that his MPhil at Cambridge focused on Development Studies and that he followed Indian political events closely even while employed abroad.
According to the memoir, the party had strongly urged Rahul to take on an active role, which would mean a complete change of life and becoming a public figure “watched and judged at every step.” He reached the decision after discussions with Priyanka and Sonia and “some deep thinking on his part,” she writes. In March 2004, Rahul said he would contest from Amethi, while Sonia Gandhi moved to neighbouring Rae Bareli.
Reflecting on the parallel, Sonia Gandhi writes that two decades earlier she had begged Rajiv not to enter politics or throw the family into “that menacing world.” “Now, it was my son’s turn, and this time I did not resist it,” she says, adding that Rahul had foreseen his father’s end and had fought with him over it, yet carried a deep kinship with Rajiv’s values and respect for his courage despite the looming threat.
Rahul won his first election handsomely, she writes, and enthusiastically took up his new responsibility, bringing businesses and industries to rural Amethi as Rajiv had done. Priyanka, proving herself a “capable manager,” started self-help groups in Amethi to encourage women to become agents of change. With Rahul’s involvement, Sonia Gandhi writes, the Amethi self-help group network became the largest in northern India, and he also set up a much-needed eye hospital whose branches later spread to Lucknow and Haryana.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sonia-gandhi-book-belonging-a-journey-of-love-when-sonia-gandhi-did-not-resist-son-rahuls-political-plunge-12306980#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-11-10 13:49:00
