Sonia Gandhi’s new book: Pranab Mukherjee hinted at wanting to be PM in 2010

PTC Web Desk: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s long-awaited book, 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', is now in stores. The book has stories from inside the Gandhi family and from the political events around them, and some of them are already getting attention. Two of the people she writes about are former President Pranab Mukherjee and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'His remark surprised me'

Sonia Gandhi writes that Pranab Mukherjee brought up his old wish to become prime minister during a conversation in 2010. According to her, he suggested that it might be time for a change at the top.

She says this took her by surprise. “I took it as a sign of his old wish to become Prime Minister,” she writes.

She also explains how things worked during the UPA years. There was an unwritten division of work between the PM and the party president. Manmohan Singh ran the government and she looked after the party. A “core group” with Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, AK Antony and Ahmed Patel met the PM every week to keep things coordinated. A separate strategy group met regularly to plan which issues to raise in Parliament.

Pranab Mukherjee often stayed back after these meetings to speak to her privately, she writes. At the time, he had serious differences with then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. It was after he voiced his unhappiness about this in 2010 that he made the comment about leadership change.

She adds that Mukherjee may have been disappointed, but he never let her feel he was upset with her.

In 2012, Congress made him the UPA’s candidate for President and he went on to win. Even after that, she says, he often came to meet her. She describes these visits as conversations with an experienced and knowledgeable politician.

On the 'remote control' allegation

Sonia Gandhi also responds to the long-running claim that she held the real power in the UPA government while Manmohan Singh was PM only in name. She rejects it completely and calls it false.

She writes that such talk was common in the media at the time and that some of those reports were fuelled by people close to the PM himself.

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About 10 years later, she says, a book by a former aide of the PM claimed that she called for government files from the PMO, interfered in administrative matters and decided key appointments. She calls these claims malicious and wrong.

'I never asked for files from the PMO'

She says she faced many serious allegations in her political career, but the charge that she saw government files hurt her the most.

For someone outside the government to see official files would be highly improper, she says, and she was always careful about rules and protocol. She also writes that the PMO had put out a statement saying she was never shown any government file.

'It was my duty to respect his authority'

Sonia Gandhi says she was always clear that Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. As Congress president, she could give her opinion, make suggestions and even disagree. But respecting the PM’s authority was her duty, she writes.

She says she never wanted to create confusion that would give the opposition a chance to attack the government or weaken the UPA administration. In the book, she describes this division of roles between government and party as a system that worked smoothly.