Rani Singh - Sonia Gandhi: An Incredible Life, an Indian Destiny

AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE, AN INDIAN DESTINY

RANI SINGH

Foreword by Mikhail S. Gorbachev,

Former President of the Soviet Union

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To Jairaj and Sukhraj, for sharing the journey.

One evening in the East Indian state of Uttar Pradesh I was visiting the village of Samra in the constituency of Amethi, whence Sonia Gandhi was elected as a member of parliament, and which is now represented by her son Rahul. A couple of five- and six-year-olds, still in their school uniforms, were cleaning steel dishes with mud and grass by the light of a kerosene glass lamp. A boy scampered along with an improvised toy, a stick and a cycle tire. A man who used to mix potions for a doctor had set himself up as a pharmaceutical dispenser and was selling medicines for common ailments; he said he was practicing doctori, the art of being a doctor. To his right, past the village hand pump, there was a large space where Rahul Gandhi brought a British foreign secretary to talk to village women and hear them sing. That night they slept on charpoys (wooden frames on four legs strung with rope) in separate small, thatched-roof mud homes until around 4:30 AM. In Samra, there are self-help groups of women who spin thread on manually operated spinning wheels, as advocated by Mahatma Gandhia focused task that has lifted them out of poverty and created a sense of community. Once a month they clean the entire village themselves. For me, it was an illuminating visit to an outreach program in the heartland of Amethi, which is indelibly identified with the Nehru family. It gave me insight into how Sonias son is continuing the family desire to effect change; this was just one of the many voyages of discovery I made during my research for this book.

The idea of a biography of Sonia Gandhi was originally Palgrave Macmillans. They approached me and a couple of other journalists, searching for a suitable writer. The editor liked my approach and sometime later we signed a contract. An up-to-date story of one of the most powerful people in the world had not been told in depth; for it appeared that no major international house outside India had published an English-language biography on Sonia Gandhi. I prepared a list of essential questions, which expanded indefinitely as time went on, and set off for Delhi with two voice recorders. During my research trip in India, which lasted more than three months, and then later back in Great Britain, I collected over a hundred interviews. All, except for four, were recorded. All interviews were manually transcribed by me, word for word, and time-coded. The four untaped interviewees spoke deliberately enough for me to write down their answers verbatim. Most of my interviewees were prepared to be identified, though information on some episodes of Sonia Gandhis life was provided by people who were recorded but asked to remain anonymous, and their wishes have been respected. Some of the interviews were conducted in two or three sessions, occasionally covering different continents.

Immersing myself in the Indian political arena, it was fascinating to observe Mrs. Sonia Gandhi in a formal setting in New Delhi, as she sat on the front bench of the Lower House of parliament. Back in London, I sat in the second row when she gave the fourteenth Commonwealth Lecture for the Commonwealth Foundation on March 17, 2011, called Women as Agents of Change.

During my stay in India to research this book, I traveled to the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Getting away from cities showed me the challenges that politicians face in addressing the needs of the majority: Some 180 or so miles south of the city of Chennai, after driving past tractors and motorcycles on a dusty road along the east coast of India abutting the Bay of Bengal, I witnessed a villager from a low caste complaining to a politician about his lack of access to proper drinking water. For a long time, the overhead tank in the village had not been cleaned, he said, and one day when he opened a tap, to his astonishment a fish plopped out. He kept the fish and took it to show to the head man of his village council as evidence, but no one was interested in the problem. He told the politician that, apart from water needs, his village of fisher folk needed more homes and more money. An aide took notes while the politician listened. It was a small example of the problems faced by ordinary marginalized Indians, at a time when the gap between rich and poor is widening.

As is often the case with significant figures on the world stage, this biography is not an authorized work. The information and episodes covering Sonia Gandhis life come from primary and secondary sources. My purpose in writing this book was not to provide a definitive political critiquewith a scorecard of achievements and mistakesof any of the main players involved; rather, I sought to tell the story of Sonia Gandhi using research and interviews with those who know or have known her. I have tried to provide an easy to understand account of the complex historical events surrounding her extraordinary life. Given that there were and are more than one person in political circles named Mrs. Gandhi, I have mostly referred to Indira and her daughters-in-law, Sonia and Maneka, by their first names. This is to avoid confusion, and no disrespect or attempt at familiarity is intended.

This undertaking has been the toughest challenge of my career, but I gave it my all, and learned much from having to deal with the various hurdles along the way. It has been a privilege to work on a project of this significanceIndia is at a very exciting point in its contemporary life, and the Gandhi family looks set to be at the center of the political arena for the years to comewhich is why I was asked to look at the part that Rahul Gandhi has played and is likely to play in the future.

Rani Singh

London, May 2011

Another Palgrave Macmillan author once commented that it takes a village to write a book. I agree. I have included here, as many as possible, those who made the biography Sonia Gandhi happen.

My primary debt of thanks is due to my sons, Jairaj and Sukhraj. They always encouraged and kept me going through the challenges with huge emotional support in London and in India. They read and gave me valuable feedback on the whole book.

In Moscow, the former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, wrote a personal, illuminating foreword for which I am very grateful. I also thank Pavel Palazhchenko, President Gorbachevs Adviser for International and Media Relations; Vladimir Grigoriev, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication; and Mr. Grigorievs assistant, Marina Savusya, for their excellent cooperation.

In London, James Brewer, senior international business journalist and former editor of global insurance at Lloyds List, devoted many hours to a meticulous reading on virtually every chapter at each draft, as well as ancillaries.