After decades of watching others narrate her life, Sonia Gandhi is ready to tell her own story — and expects some "tamasha" when her memoir hits the shelves next month.
The Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson on Tuesday shared a fresh preview of her upcoming memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, saying much of what had been written about her over the years was either invented or exaggerated.
"There's bound to be some tamasha when this book comes out. After all, others have spent decades telling my 'story', now it's my turn," Sonia wrote in her second post on X since joining the platform last week.
In the 1.28-minute video, Sonia is seen leafing through her memoir and wondering aloud, "I don't know if I should tell the whole story."
"When my husband was asked to become the Prime Minister, which I was totally against....," she says before trailing off. Sonia Gandhi said she wanted to set the record straight by recounting events as she remembered them, acknowledging that her account could change public perceptions of her, for better or worse.
"People have different views, some people may change their view about me. Some people's view may become worse but that is what it is, that is what happens when you write a book, or when you are in public life. There is bound to be a 'tamasha' as you say it here," Sonia Gandhi says.
Her remarks in the video were interspersed with footage of key moments from her life -- her marriage to Rajiv to his assassination. There were also glimpses of Sonia Gandhi attending AICC meetings as well as her photographs with Rajiv and her two children -- Rahul and Priyanka.
In her debut post on X on Saturday, Sonia described her late husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as a very good-looking and gentle person. She had shared her memories of their life together as she made her debut on social media platform X.
Sonia Gandhi made her Instagram debut last Thursday with posts on her upcoming book, which she described as a "story of love, duty, loss and finding a place to belong".
This was Sonia's first foray into social media. Over the years, she has been using the Congress' X handle to release her video statements or other messages and letters that she wished to make public.
Last month, HarperCollins India said it will publish Sonia Gandhi's 544-page memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love in India on November 10, ending the uncertainty over the book's domestic publication following an "impasse" between the author's representatives and Penguin Random House India (PRHI).
HarperCollins India's announcement followed a controversy involving PRHI, which was initially keen to publish the memoir but subsequently said it would not be the Indian publisher.
The controversy began amid reports of differences between the publisher and the author's representatives over editorial changes to the manuscript.
Several Congress leaders had raised issues of governmental pressure and freedom of expression with some alleging that there was pressure on Penguin India to remove sections relating to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and China's occupation of Indian territory during the Modi regime.
PRHI clarified that they were "really keen" to publish the book, describing it as a "hard-won acquisition", but ultimately decided to step away due to a "stalemate over a particular issue".
While maintaining there was no external pressure whatsoever, PRHI declined to disclose the exact nature of the impasse, citing confidentiality clauses and their agreement with the author.
Belonging begins with Sonia's childhood in post-war Veneto, Italy and traces her journey to Cambridge, where in 1965 she met Rajiv Gandhi.
The memoir recounts her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi and her introduction to her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as well as her efforts to adjust to life in India, including learning Hindi, wearing saris and adapting to Indian food and culture.
It covers the major tragedies that transformed the Gandhi family, including the death of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash, Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991.
The memoir also delves into political events surrounding the Congress-led alliance's victory in the 2004 elections, when Sonia Gandhi declined to become Prime Minister and instead led the party and its alliance, which governed India for a decade.