Sonia Gandhi Recalls Sanjay Gandhi's Role In Emergency In New Memoir
· India · Indian Express, India Today
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has described her late brother-in-law Sanjay Gandhi as a man in a hurry who wielded significant decision-making influence during the Emergency despite holding no formal constitutional authority. In her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, she writes that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was never entirely comfortable imposing the Emergency between June 1975 and March 1977 but felt compelled due to prevailing unrest. India awoke on June 26, 1975, to a strict clampdown involving overnight arrests of opposition leaders, suspension of habeas corpus, and sweeping press censorship. Sonia Gandhi also discusses Sanjay's Five Point Programme targeting social issues like dowry and illiteracy. Furthermore, she rejects portrayals of Sanjay as a coward, characterizing him instead as fearless and determined following his death in a 1980 plane crash at age 33.
Why it matters
Political historians and Indian readers gain rare insider perspectives on the inner workings of political power during the 1975 Emergency through Sonia Gandhi's published memoir.
Read the original report — Indian Express
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