Sonia’s shyness—she was so shy that she didn’t turn up for her first meeting with Indira—won over her future mother-in-law, who knew only too well what it felt like to be paralysingly shy. But others saw her differently. "She was always a little manipulative," recalled a nun in the college she attended in Giaveno, Italy, adding shrewdly, "she should do well in politics". At least one other person shared the nun’s perception: husband Rajiv, who inevitably took his political cares into the bedroom and discovered in Sonia not only a receptive ear but a shrewd advisor, able to judge those around him with surprising sharpness. Word soon got around and she was dubbed "Noor Jehan of Turin".
Sonia may have "fought like a tigress" to try and stop Rajiv from accepting the prime minister’s job after Indira’s assassination but she did not find political life altogether disagreeable. Soon after Rajiv was inducted into the Congress, she voluntarily switched, to her mother-in-law’s delight, from trousers and skirts to sarees and salwar kameezes. She began visiting Rajiv’s constituency, Amethi, parroting "Patiji ko vote dijiye" and collapsing into giggles. Besides, it was she who encouraged Rajiv to stay on in politics after his humiliating defeat in 1989.
Speaking in Hindi was not a problem. Indira imposed only one rule on her household: all conversation at the dinner table had to be in Hindi. Sonia, anxious to please, was soon able to hold her own and a tutor was hired from the local Hindi Institute to teach her to read and write the Devanagari script. The family tradition of talking only in Hindi at dinnertime apparently still continues in 10 Janpath.
Sonia, who was offered the Congress leadership within hours of Rajiv’s assassination, resisted at first, partly because of her bereavement and because of her and the children’s fears for her life. "What do they think?" Priyanka burst out when Sonia was pressed to fight the polls in September 1991. "Should we keep sacrificing our lives? We’ve had enough of politics."
Yet, Sonia was not averse to being consulted on Rajiv’s successor, giving the nod to Narasimha Rao and making her disapproval of the other contender, Sharad Pawar, clear. During Rao’s tenure, she became a ‘listening post’ for his many detractors in the party. Encouraged by her secretary, Vincent George, Congressmen were invited to call on her between 5 pm and 7 pm on certain days. She listened to each without once revealing her own mind, encouraging them to rebel against Rao but leaving them high and dry when they eventually mustered the courage to do so. It was a choice of waiting for the right moment to strike or standing by her loyal soldiers. She chose betrayal.
The right time didn’t come till nearly three years later when Sonia indicated her willingness to campaign for the 1998 polls. Several factors hastened the inevitable: the delay in Rajiv’s assassination probe, the party’s decline and the attack on the family legacy. She consulted her two children before taking the plunge. Priyanka was more open to the idea than Rahul but after some discussion, both agreed that she go ahead. It was a decision that cost her a friendship: Amitabh Bachchan, who tried to stop her from succumbing to the "vultures who wanted to cash in on the family name", was abruptly dropped.
But she has proved to be no walkover, imposing her own corporate style of "Japanese management by consensus", emerging unscathed, even strengthened, by the challenges to her leadership, and distancing herself from the ‘coterie’ who expected to rule in her name. She has diligently schooled herself, surpassing even Indira and Rajiv in holding on to the party’s top post despite being out of power for seven years and her obvious limitations as a vote-catcher. But what she lacks in public appeal is more than compensated by Priyanka, a trump card she plans to pull out closer to the general elections.
Sonia’s always fiercely guarded her privacy. And while Kidwai is that rare journalist to gain access to the olive green sofa in 10 Janpath, he treats her as gingerly as any Congressman. He’s more forthcoming, though, when it comes to assessing her political career. And dares to predict the future: Sonia will opt out of the race for the top job if the Congress gets under 200 seats, leaving contenders like Rao to throw their hat in the ring.
