‘I always feared Rajiv would be next’:Sonia Gandhi recalls dread after Indira’s assassination; Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991

After Indira’s assassination, the house became a fortress. Commandos were stationed in the children’s bedrooms. Rahul and Priyanka were withdrawn from school. There was a great deal of fear; I often thought that Rajiv would be next, that he would be killed. In 1991, that fear came true. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide attack by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists. This is what Sonia Gandhi says. In an interview with The Guardian, Sonia Gandhi discussed personal and political issues related to her forthcoming book, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’. Sonia says, “Indian intelligence agencies had intercepted death threats against Rajiv, but the new government ignored them. It withdrew his security. I do not think we will ever get the truth now.” In the same interview, Sonia also spoke about her love story with Rajiv. She said they met at a Greek restaurant in Cambridge. At the time, she did not know that Rajiv was the heir to India’s most prominent political family. Sonia spoke about these issues… Indira Gandhi – Mother at home, Iron Lady outside: When Sonia and Rajiv came to India in 1968, they began living with Indira Gandhi. Indira appeared to be a strict ‘Iron Lady’ in public, but Sonia says she was a completely ordinary mother at home. Newspapers portrayed her as strict or stern, but at home she was like any other mother. She also had quite a temper – the book recounts an incident in which Indira angrily threw her plate across the table during a family dinner. Indira once told Sonia how frightened she had been when she became prime minister for the first time. Emergency – The family was divided over the decision: The family was divided over the decision to impose the Emergency in 1975. Rajiv was opposed to it and had told his mother to wait for the next election. But her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, supported it. At a family dinner, Sanjay had said, “The Opposition will destroy Mother; they must be stopped.” Sonia writes in the book, “Many of the subsequent losses could have been prevented by keeping Sanjay under control.” Today, Sonia says imposing the Emergency was a mistake, and that Indira Gandhi later came to feel the same way. “I have always felt that Mrs Gandhi was democratic at heart. I know many people will laugh at this, but I believe she was never at ease during the Emergency. It was weighing heavily on her.” 31 October 1984 – The blood-soaked body: Sonia was at home that day when she heard a sound like firecrackers. She ran to the adjoining office, where Indira Gandhi’s bullet-riddled, blood-soaked body was lying on the floor. Her own Sikh bodyguards had shot her to avenge the operation at the Golden Temple. Speaking about the drive to the hospital, Sonia says, “The drive from home to the hospital was unbearable. There was not much traffic, but it seemed very slow. I also knew that because she was not speaking, it was all over.” After Indira’s death, when Rajiv was asked to become prime minister, Sonia begged him to stay away from politics. Babri demolition – cried after watching it on television: When the mosque was demolished in Ayodhya in December 1992, Sonia watched it on television and broke down in tears. She said, “That was when I realised that we would have to fight a long battle for the secular nation that Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and their associates had tried to build.” She also believes that the Congress’s complacency helped the rise of the BJP and its hardline Hindutva politics. She says, “I think we had become very complacent in many ways. There was a kind of careless attitude.” ​