"Not 2029 Elections": N Ram On The Timing Of Sonia Gandhi's Book, Its Politics

Sonia Gandhi's "Belonging: A Journey of Love", which was released today, will have elements that fuel the 2029 elections, but it was not written with politics mind, N Ram, the former Editor-in-Chief of the daily The Hindu said today. 

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, N Ram said political issues came in course of narration in the book, which Sonia Gandhi has described as an effort to portray her family "honestly, as people (she) knew and loved".

"It happened suddenly... there are inputs for the elections in this, particularly what she says about the BJP and the RSS and how people are restless, how, you know, there's been vote stealing, how institutions have been damaged or destroyed," he told NDTV. 

"She particularly mentions the Election Commission of India... So all these issues, but they are playing right now. The 2029 elections are a little further away... had it been for the election, she could have had it two years down the road. So it is not the case," he added.

The timing of the book, he said, has been determined by feeling. Gandhi, he pointed out, has said on social media platform X and also in an interview with him, that "Others have spent decades telling my story... now it is my turn".

She wrote, because the books written about the Gandhi family did not portray the people right. "They didn't quite understand the human people, the human inside the people they describe within my immediate family," he quoted her as saying. 

As to how the book started, he said about 10 years ago, she started jotting down things.

"Sometimes it came in a flow, sometimes there was a block...  there was some frustration... but she devoted the last five years to this," he said. 

Even then, there were some periods where she couldn't write, when she wasn't in flow," he said.

"So I would say the timing was determined by the desire to tell her own story because there's so much being told about her and she - they - had kept silent," he said. Sonia Gandhi, he added, had even discussed the matter with Rajiv Gandhi. Their conclusion - "Don't pay any attention to it. And she also said, "I don't read those books".