BOOK
REVIEW A reluctant
heir Sonia: A
biography, by Rasheed Kidwai
Reviewed by Jason Overdorf
When journalist Rasheed
Kidwai set out to write an unauthorized biography of
Sonia Gandhi, many were not optimistic about his
chances. The Italian-born widow of assassinated prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi is notoriously tightlipped with
the media, and she is hardly likely to be any more
friendly to a biographer - always seen here as
hagiographer or character assassin. But Kidwai was not
dissuaded. If anything, the difficulties he would face
in gathering material for his book gave him new
inspiration to write it. Though the
president of India's illustrious Congress Party had
scores of sycophants and legions of critics, nobody had
managed "an objective evaluation of her life".
Without a doubt, Sonia is one of the most
intriguing figures in Indian political life. Like many
of the more appealing public personalities, she became
part of Indian history accidentally, and with some
reluctance, as a victim of circumstance. When she
married Rajiv Gandhi - no relation to Mohandas "Mahatma"
Gandhi - in 1968, the scion of the Congress party's
hereditary dynasty claimed to have no interest in
following in the footsteps of his mother Indira Gandhi
and his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru (both premiers).
Rajiv was a commercial pilot, and more than happy to
leave the political wrangling to his brother, Sanjay.
Nevertheless, Sonia's entrance into the political family
required her to remake herself as an Indian bahu,
or daughter-in-law, deferent and traditional. And when
her husband entered politics in 1984, winning the prime
minister's post by a landslide after the assassination
of his mother, Indira, Sonia was forced fully into the
limelight. She tried to keep away from politics and lead
a normal life during her husband's term as premier, but
this was a decision that would come back to haunt her,
as it founded her image as "an inscrutable person,
constantly tense, aloof and cold".
Kidwai's
biography deals primarily with the period of Sonia's
life leading up to her selection as the Congress party
president, several years after Rajiv was assassinated in
1991. As a cub reporter with a Congress-allied paper,
Kidwai was one of the few journalists who stuck by the
then-lackluster widow for the months following her
husband's death. During that period, Kidwai said in a
telephone interview, Sonia never discouraged Congress
leaders from coming and meeting her, so "although she
didn't join politics, she became a sort of listening
post". Knowing the leader from these days, Kidwai offers
an interesting insight into her personality and
motivations - which are still mostly unknown, even as
she mounts her second run for prime minister against
incumbent Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which forms the lead party
in the ruling coalition.
"One needs to look at
it in a very human way," Kidwai says. "She came from a
far away place - she didn't come from Rome, she was in a
very small place in Italy. Indians know a lot about the
UK and English people know a fair amount about India,
but Italy is very far from us. Her family knew very
little about India. Her father was very opposed to this
marriage. Her father died in 1988 without ever visiting
India, even when Indira died or the birth of Priyanka
and Rahul [Sonia's children]." With all this distance in
the background, Kidwai says, when the Congress offered
her the mantle of leadership, it came as a shock. She
was still grieving for her husband, and suddenly she was
thrust into a world of Machiavellian intrigues, with
everyone seeking to use her to further their own
ambitions.
While it does get bogged down in the
details of the petty rivalries and backroom deals of the
Congress party, this section of Kidwai's biography,
which comprises the bulk of the book, also provides an
excellent history of the woes that have brought the once
unassailable political party into its present disarray.
Kidwai traces how, without a Nehru or Gandhi to lead
them, rival factions nearly split the Congress on
several occasions, until finally the cabal of leaders
prevailed on Sonia to take charge as leader. Not
surprisingly, it was a compromise destined for trouble,
as many saw Sonia as a neophyte they could turn to their
advantage, but it did prevent a schism. Today, though,
many blame Rajiv's widow for the Congress' failure to
defeat the BJP, forgetting to credit her with arresting
its precipitous decline.
Kidwai's recapitulation
of Sonia's achievements is useful. Along with holding
together her fractious supporters, he also credits the
Congress party president for the elimination of "black"
or untraceable money from the party's finances, the
steadfast support of a bill that would allot a quota of
seats in the parliament to women and a new, more
democratic operating style. The latter move - a change
in demeanor from the autocratic methods of Indira and
Rajiv, who ushered in and shunted out state chief
ministers as a matter of course - has helped her to
marshal her troops and makes it very unlikely that a
leader will emerge to oppose her within the party,
despite some grousing that the Congress should not be
led by a foreigner.
But for all Kidwai's skill
as political analyst, the biography suffers from an
impersonal feel, perhaps because he was denied regular
access to his subject. The portrait that emerges is that
of a political leader, as Kidwai concerns himself
chiefly with Sonia's political choices as he attempts to
sketch out her ideology. And while that may prove useful
to Indian voters (and journalists) as the Congress
president ramps up her campaign for national elections
in April and May, it gives the book a dry, academic
tone. Just as Sonia's stern face hasn't endeared her to
the public as India's Jackie Kennedy - whose trials are
in many respects paralleled by her own - this serious
biography is likely to hold the interest only of
scholars and committed policy wonks.
Sonia: A
biography, by Rasheed Kidwai, Penguin India
(December 2003). Hardcover. ISBN: 0670049557. Price
US$8.8, 256 pages.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
When journalist Rasheed
Kidwai set out to write an unauthorized biography of
Sonia Gandhi, many were not optimistic about his
chances. The Italian-born widow of assassinated prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi is notoriously tightlipped with
the media, and she is hardly likely to be any more
friendly to a biographer - always seen here as
hagiographer or character assassin. But Kidwai was not
dissuaded. If anything, the difficulties he would face
in gathering material for his book gave him new
inspiration to write it. Though the
president of India's illustrious Congress Party had
scores of sycophants and legions of critics, nobody had
managed "an objective evaluation of her life".
