In a video shared on X on Sunday, Sonia is seen in a conversation with daughter Priyanka Gandhi and granddaughter Miraya Vadra in the garden of the house. On Diwali, senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi shared profound memories of the festival at her mother-in-law, late Indira Gandhi’s home – 1-Safdarjung Road.
Kashmiri food would be cooked during festival time, Sonia reminisced. “We would do the first lighting of the diyas by Ganeshji’s murti. In those days we didn’t have those little lights everywhere but we had diyas everywhere, around the pond, all along the roof, veranda and along the path. It was very pretty,” she can be heard saying in the candid conversation with her daughter and granddaughter. Priyanka also remembered celebrating festivals with her father Rajiv Gandhi at Indira’s official residence. The mother-daughter also remembered how the weather used to be pleasant those days with skies blue and clear. Sonia, whose memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, recently made her social media debut with accounts on X and Instagram. However, she soon realised that Rajiv was about to tell her something she did not want to hear. “We held each other, and as he spoke to me, it sunk in that he was saying something I didn’t want to hear. ‘I have been asked; They want me to be sworn in as prime minister,’” she wrote. “I felt as if a knife had been plunged right into my heart. I felt a pounding in my chest, a rage welling up deep inside me. I was about to explode. I attempted to hold it in,” she recalled.
The book is set to hit the stands on Tuesday, November 10. In one of the excerpts from the book, Sonia recalls pleading with her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, not to become India’s prime minister following the assassination of his mother, Indira, on October 31, 1984. In an edited extract from her memoir published by The Guardian, Sonia recounts the emotional moments after Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her bodyguards at her 1, Safdarjung Road residence in New Delhi.
Remembering the Diwali celebrations at former PM Indira’s home, Sonia said that the whole place would be lit up with diyas (earthen lamps). “Papa used to take us to Chandni Chowk to buy firecrackers,” Priyanka remembered her childhood ritual of going to Old Delhi for Diwali shopping. Sonia also tells her granddaughter that people used to go “berserk” with firecrackers in those days, adding that she particularly liked fireworks like the ‘phuljhadi’. Sharing the video on X and Instagram, Sonia said, “Revisiting my early memories of celebrating Diwali – the traditions, the festivities and the little moments that made it so special. Recalling their meeting at the hospital, Sonia said she longed to be alone with her husband for a moment. Sonia said she was overwhelmed by anger and anguish at the prospect of Rajiv taking over as prime minister, fearing that he too could become a target.
Rajiv Gandhi was in West Bengal, attending a political rally, when he was informed that a serious incident had taken place in Delhi. He rushed back to the national capital and landed at around 3.30 pm before being driven straight to the hospital.
