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Sonia Gandhi's memoir Belonging and the BJP's reply: what she writes, what Trivedi says
Sonia Gandhi's memoir Belonging, released on 10 November, says she followed her inner voice in declining the PM's post in 2004 and rejects the back-seat driver charge. On 11 November the BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi said she became a super PM as National Advisory Council chair.
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Sonia Gandhi's memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, was released on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, and within a day it became the subject of a political exchange. In the 544-page book, published by HarperCollins India, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson writes that she followed her inner voice in declining the prime minister's post after the Congress-led alliance won the 2004 election, and she rejects the charge that she was a back-seat driver of the government that followed. On Wednesday, 11 November, the Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi told a press conference that she had given up the top post only to become a "super PM". No reply from the Congress had been reported by 12 November. This article sets out both accounts and is for information only.
What the book says
According to accounts of the memoir, Gandhi writes that she decided against becoming prime minister in 2004 and nominated Manmohan Singh, whom she describes as a leader of unquestionable integrity who was not allied to any camp in the party. One account says she cites opposition from her children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, rooted in the family's history of assassinations; another account of the book does not mention it. She writes that Singh was hesitant at first, had assumed she would take the post, and that the two had not discussed it beforehand.
On the allegation that she steered the government without holding office, she is reported to say that Singh ran the government while she led the party, and that she did not interfere in administrative matters or see official government files. The book also looks back at other periods. She calls the Emergency of 1975 a mistake while describing Indira Gandhi as a democrat at heart, and she writes that Rajiv Gandhi opposed it and advised waiting for the next election, while Sanjay Gandhi supported it. She describes the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 as a turning point and recalls the aftermath of Operation Blue Star in 1984 as it reached the family home.
What the BJP says
At the party's headquarters in New Delhi, Trivedi said the claim of sacrifice did not stand up because she then headed the National Advisory Council, a body that advised the government and whose chairperson had Cabinet rank. He asked how she could say she gave up the top post while holding that role, and he said the country knew what the "super PM and super cabinet" of that period were. He also said the post fell under office-of-profit provisions. Another report says the party also questioned her account of Rajiv Gandhi's position on the Emergency and pointed to what it called factual errors about the Anna Hazare movement and the founding of the RSS; the accounts available do not set out those points in detail, and they are the party's claims.
| Point | In the memoir | The BJP's reply |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 decision | Declined the post, followed her inner voice, chose Manmohan Singh | A sacrifice undone by the council role |
| Running the government | Singh ran it, she led the party | She exercised influence as council chair |
| Council post | Not the focus of the book as reported | Cabinet rank and office of profit |
| Emergency | A mistake; Rajiv opposed, Sanjay supported | Questions her account of Rajiv's stance |
The record behind the argument
The argument is an old one. The National Advisory Council was set up in 2004 after the Congress-led government took office, and Gandhi chaired it. In 2006 a dispute over office-of-profit rules led her to resign as a member of Parliament and as chair of the council, and she was re-elected from Rae Bareli. She again headed a reconstituted council from 2010. The BJP has used the phrase "super PM" about this arrangement for years, and it made similar claims in 2014 after the publication of Sanjaya Baru's book The Accidental Prime Minister, which said Singh was not fully in control of his government.
The two accounts do not contradict each other on the facts of 2004. She declined the post, and she later chaired the council. What they disagree about is what that influence amounted to: the book says she led the party and left government to the prime minister, and the BJP says the council gave her a role in government that went beyond the party. Neither the memoir nor the press conference publishes documents that settle that, and the book is the author's own account.
The timing is also part of the story. A memoir released on a Tuesday drew a press conference by Wednesday, which shows how quickly an account of events from two decades ago becomes a live argument between the parties, and how little of the book most people have yet read.
Readers should look for the Congress party's reply, if one is made, and for the book's text itself on the points the BJP has raised. Until then, what is on record is the author's statement of her own role and a rival party's description of it.
About the Author
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Reyaansh Agarawal
Staff Writer
Reyaansh Agarawal contributes to Wirony, covering stories that are carefully reviewed and approved by the editorial team before publication. Wirony is committed to maintaining tran…
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