Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging is out, with her account of Indira, Rajiv and Modi

HarperCollins India published Belonging: A Journey of Love, the memoir of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on 10 November. The book covers her life from her childhood in Italy to her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi and her decades in Indian politics, including the deaths of Sanjay, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.

Ms. Gandhi, 79, led the Congress for longer than anyone else and is now a member of the Rajya Sabha. Extracts reported before the launch have already drawn political responses.

What she writes

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ms. Gandhi writes that she has had little real contact with him but that they share some common ground, Hindustan Times reported. She puts his sharp words about Jawaharlal Nehru down to the “conditioning” he received in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the report said.

She also recalls that Indira Gandhi wept over Operation Blue Star, the Army’s 1984 assault on militants holed up in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, NDTV reported.

In an interview with The Hindu before the launch, she said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had done great damage to the fabric of India. The BJP’s response to the book was not reported.

The response

The Shiromani Akali Dal objected to her account of Operation Blue Star. Its spokesperson, Arshdeep Singh Kler, called the Army action an attack aimed squarely at Sikhs and at the Akal Takht, the highest seat of Sikh religious authority, NDTV reported.

How it was published

Penguin Random House India had been expected to publish the book. In August, it said it was not the book’s publisher in India, after reports of a dispute over editorial changes, which Penguin did not confirm. HarperCollins India then announced in September that it would publish the book on 10 November. Alfred A. Knopf is publishing it in the United States.

What’s next

The book goes on sale in India from 10 November.