1984 Intelligence Alert Pulled Rahul, Priyanka Out Of School: Sonia Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were pulled out of their boarding schools in the middle of their academic term and brought back to Delhi after intelligence reports warned of a plot to kidnap them in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, their mother and former Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has written in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love.

The warning came from RN Kao, a former intelligence chief and security adviser to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who assessed that the children could no longer be protected at their residential schools, Sonia Gandhi wrote in the book.

Walking into her mother-in-law's study after dinner one evening as usual, Sonia Gandhi and her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, were asked by Indira Gandhi to sit down before she addressed them in a more sombre tone.

"I want to talk to you both about something that's been worrying me these past few days. I've been told by Mr Kao that there are reports that the children (Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi) might be kidnapped. He says it's not possible any longer to keep them safe in their schools; we have to bring them back home," Indira Gandhi told the couple, according to the memoir.

The conversation triggered immediate alarm within the family. While Indira Gandhi tried to remain calm, Sonia Gandhi began to panic and later broke down in tears when she and her husband returned to their room.

"The thought of something happening to the children was terrifying. Later, when we were alone in our room, I couldn't help shedding some tears," Sonia Gandhi wrote, adding that her mother-in-law told her the danger was real and needed swift action.

Rajiv Gandhi also considered the possible political consequences of a potential kidnapping during a volatile period for the government.

"While the safety of the children was naturally of paramount importance to us, we had also to consider the disastrous political fallout if something untoward was to happen. He (Rajiv Gandhi) couldn't allow his mother as prime minister to be held to ransom by forces bent on achieving their ends by any means," Sonia Gandhi wrote in the memoir.

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An assessment of the two boarding campuses showed neither was equipped to counter a targeted kidnapping attempt because Rahul Gandhi's school had a sprawling campus. Although the outer perimeter security had been in place since the start of his stay, the personnel were not specially trained to provide thorough protection.

Priyanka Gandhi's school was even more vulnerable as it consisted of small units divided by roads that she had to walk across every morning and evening.

"Both children by then had gone through their initial adjustments to boarding school life and were even enjoying it. They were in the middle of their school term - but there was no alternative: We were compelled to bring them home immediately," Sonia Gandhi recalled.

The threat to the family escalated after Operation Blue Star and Indira Gandhi told her daughter-in-law not to allow the children to play next door on Akbar Road as they normally did - and strictly not after dusk - where Sikh personnel from her security detail were posted.

Despite the heightened threat perception, Indira Gandhi refused to remove the Sikh guards from her security details.

"Such a choice would go against everything she had stood for. To her, every citizen of India, regardless of region, caste, or creed, deserved equal respect. She was to pay for her decisions and her principles with a fusillade of bullets fired from machine guns by the two Sikh guards posted at the wicket. One of them had been a regular companion to Rahul and Priyanka in their games in Akbar Road," Sonia Gandhi wrote.

Following their withdrawal from boarding school, the family managed to find admission for the children in schools in Delhi with some difficulty due to security concerns.

"The move meant a whole new phase of adjustment for them - a new environment, new teachers, new books, new schoolmates - but at least they were at home, with us to guide and support them," Sonia Gandhi noted, as the children thereafter got to spend what turned out to be the final two months of their lives with their grandmother.