New Delhi, Nov 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) For Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, it was "refreshing at first" to have a younger sister-in-law, Maneka Gandhi, in the house until the latter's relationship with the Gandhi family turned sour and the "Choti Bahu", by then, the widow of Sanjay Gandhi, walked out of the house.
The veteran Congress leader has detailed the story of now-BJP leader Maneka Gandhi's entry into the Gandhi family and their gradual fallout, in her memoir "Belonging: A Journey Of Love", released on Tuesday.
Sonia Gandhi wrote that Maneka was introduced to Sanjay Gandhi towards the end of 1973, describing her younger sister-in-law as "a pretty and vivacious girl, ten years younger than him and still a minor".
"Within a year, they were married and Maneka, now 18, became part of the Gandhi family," she said.
"Maneka was a high-spirited and talkative girl, full of zest. It was refreshing at first to have a younger sister-in-law in the house. I could hear her laughter at times coming from Amie Aunty's room, and would walk in to enquire about the subject of such merriment, then end up sitting down to listen to her lively chatter about her friends or a book she was reading," Sonia Gandhi wrote, adding that her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was often found in her 'chachi's' (aunt's) room, spellbound by a story she was being told.
However, she recalled that slowly the atmosphere at the Gandhi household began to change, "with irritations cropping up in the home".
According to the CPP Chairperson, it began with how the two daughters-in-law of the house were addressed. Sonia, the elder daughter-in-law, was addressed by the staff as "Bahurani", while Maneka, being the younger brother's wife, was called "Choti Bahu".
While former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi saw both of them as "equal daughters of the house", Maneka, Sonia Gandhi claims, "probably saw it as a putdown".
"When she spoke rudely, by and large I'd remain silent to keep the peace, but when I felt it had gone too far, I wouldn't hold back and would respond curtly," Sonia Gandhi recalls in her book.
She further said that the differences between Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi started spilling out of the four walls of their bedroom as "the exchange of words between them became noisier and more heated".
When annoyed, Maneka "would use expletives, even in the presence of my mother-in-law, that were taboo in the home; they embarrassed him and shocked us. Living in our joint family couldn't have been easy for a young girl with a sociable and gregarious temperament", she wrote.
However, Sonia Gandhi felt that the household must have felt "dull and regimented" to Maneka, because, she said, everyone was occupied with one thing or the other.
She seemed to "settle down" only after she started accompanying Sanjay Gandhi to political functions and programmes, the CPP Chairperson recalled.
However, Maneka's influence on Sanjay started interfering with his relationship with his brother, Rajiv. Once inseparable, the relationship between the two brothers turned bitter, the Congress MP claimed.
Referring to Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi's defeat in their own constituencies, Rae Bareli and Amethi, following the end of the Emergency in March 1977, Sonia Gandhi said that as Sanjay Gandhi's name became synonymous with the Emergency, he started voicing opinions in interviews about the "slow workings of the bureaucracy" and shared views that could have been "construed as being critical of the Prime Minister".
She further wrote that Sanjay Gandhi's political ambitions found support in some factions of the party, some of which did not sit well with Indira Gandhi, who felt that Maneka was "egging him on in his activities, rather than being a sobering influence on Sanjay".
"She had said to Cabinet Secretary P N Dhar about her young daughter-in-law: 'Uske abhi se par nikalne lage hain.' (She has started growing wings already)."
Moreover, according to Sonia Gandhi, Maneka's "animosity" towards the family only increased after Rajiv Gandhi felt Sanjay Gandhi had contributed to the "calamitous outcome" of the 1978 elections".
"He felt that Sanjay had contributed in great measure to the calamitous outcome: his stubbornness, his impetuosity, his rush to implement programmes that weren't well thought out, his unwillingness to heed well-meant admonitions, his acting in many instances without his mother's knowledge," the book read.
In one family discussion, Sonia Gandhi recalled: "Rajiv said vehemently, 'I cannot forgive you, Sanjay, you have brought Ma to this pass'."
"My mother-in-law, upset and agitated, assented: 'What Rajiv said is true, Sanjay! How many times you gave orders without my knowledge'."
"Maneka intervened, and my mother-in-law, raising her voice, challenged her to deny it. She quickly retreated, but her animosity towards us only increased."
The "Choti Bahu's" sarcastic comments became a "constant irritant", said Sonia Gandhi.
"As far as she was concerned, we were enemies. She spread stories about us through journalists with whom she was in touch. The one that galled us most was the outright lie that Rajiv and I had intended to flee the country when the elections were lost," she wrote.
The senior Congress leader said that things in the Gandhi household took a more serious turn after the death of Sanjay Gandhi on June 23, 1980, in an aircraft crash.
According to Sonia Gandhi, Maneka's mother was believed to be encouraging Sanjay loyalists in the party to demand a political position for his widow.
"But Mrs Gandhi felt that at twenty-three Maneka was still too young and immature to be given a leadership role. Besides, she had a three-month-old baby and would need to be with the little one; she should be patient; there would be enough time later to fulfil her political ambitions. But it became clear that she had her sights set elsewhere."
Things turned even more sour in March 1981 when Maneka Gandhi hosted her son Feroze Varun Gandhi's first birthday at the house of Vasundhara Raje, a staunch supporter of the RSS and a political opponent of Indira Gandhi.
Later, Maneka Gandhi started moving her belongings out of the house while her mother-in-law was in London. On her return, Indira Gandhi expressed her displeasure and asked Maneka to make a choice: "either to refrain, or to live elsewhere", Sonia Gandhi wrote.
"Maneka returned a missive full of accusations, obviously meant to damage her mother-in-law. It became clear that she was intent on creating a furore by which she would leave the house, placing the blame publicly on Mrs Gandhi. She had confided her plan weeks in advance to a journalist friend," the CPP chairperson claimed.
Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi were reportedly not at home when the altercation took place at the time of Maneka's departure. However, the blame did fall on the two of them.
"The manner in which the whole incident was manipulated, the propaganda circus that followed, turned that sordid event into what would be termed today a 'reality show'," Sonia Gandhi said in her memoir.
In the years that followed, the Gandhi family legally contested Maneka for visiting rights of Feroze Varun Gandhi, which his mother eventually denied.
Source: IANS
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