New Delhi, Nov 10 Towards the end of 1973, Sanjay Gandhi was introduced to Maneka Gandhi, “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, recalls Sonia Gandhi in her memoir “Belonging: A Journey of Love”. She narrates the oft discussed story of the “high-spirited and talkative girl” who became the “Choti Bahu” and the domestic and political fallout that would be termed a “reality show” today.
“Maneka was…full of zest. It was refreshing at first to have a younger sister-in-law in the house. But slowly, the atmosphere began to change, with irritations cropping up in the home,” Gandhi writes in the book.
The 526-page book, published by HarperCollins India, covers the arc of Gandhi’s remarkable life — her childhood in post-war Italy, her marriage into the Nehru-Gandhi family, the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi and her entry into politics.
Gandhi, who was addressed by the staff as “Bahurani”, would think of Maneka and herself as “equal daughters of the house” with enough space to share between them.
“…but she 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,” the famously reticent Gandhi recalls in the book.
Soon into the marriage, the differences between Sanjay and Maneka would come to the notice of other members of the family when ”the exchange of words between them became noisier and more heated”.
“When annoyed, she 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,” Gandhi adds.
Maneka seemed to “settle down” when she began to accompany Sanjay to political functions and programmes, according to the book.
Gandhi writes that Maneka’s influence on Sanjay started interfering with his relation with Rajiv. The relationship between the brothers, who were inseparable till a few months ago, turned bitter.
As Sanjay’s name became synonymous with 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”.
Sanjay’s political ambitions found support in some factions of the party, some of which did not sit well with his mother. Indira felt that Maneka was “egging him on his activities, rather than being a sobering influence on Sanjay”, Gandhi writes.
“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).”
Maneka’s “animosity” towards the family only increased after Rajiv felt Sanjay 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 reads.
In one family discussion, Gandhi recalls, 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.”
Maneka’s sarcastic comments became a “constant irritant”, according to 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,” Gandhi writes.
Things took a more serious turn after the death of Sanjay on June 23, 1980, in an aircraft crash.
According to 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.”
Not even a year since Sanjay’s death, Maneka’s departure from the family became apparent when Indira suggested a small get-together for the first birthday of their son Feroze Varun Gandhi.
“She learnt later that a birthday party for her grandchild had indeed taken place but in the house of Vasundhara Raje, the daughter of the dowager Rajmata of Gwalior, a staunch supporter of the RSS and a political opponent of Mrs. Gandhi. It was clearly intended to wound her,” Gandhi writes.
Raje would later facilitate the sale of Maneka’s Surya magazine to an RSS member, an event that was “tantamount to insulting not only her (Indira) but the memory of her son, of her father, of all those who had fought against the RSS’s communal ideology since the days of the struggle for Indian independence”.
“With this act Maneka had crossed all limits. To my mother-in-law, it was a deliberate challenge.”
While Indira was in London on an official trip, she received news that Maneka was having her belongings moved out of the house and reprimanded her after returning for her disloyal political activities; “she must make a choice: either to refrain, or to live elsewhere”.
“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.”
According to Gandhi, Maneka’s version of the story placed the blame for her departure not only on Indira but also on Rajiv and herself.
“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’,” she writes.
In the years that followed, the Gandhi family legally contested Maneka for visiting rights of Feroze Varun which his mother eventually denied.
“While the proceedings were dragging on, Feroze’s fourth birthday came around…By then my mother-in-law was caught up in the gathering storm in Punjab and asked me to drop some gifts at his nursery school.
“The next day there were articles in the newspapers with accusations from Maneka that I’d been sent to kidnap the child. My mother-in-law’s last reply to Maneka’s lawyer was dated April 19, 1984, less than two months before the fateful army action that came to be known as Operation Blue Star,” Gandhi writes.
Maneka, running independently, was later defeated by Rajiv in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. She went on to join V P Singh’s Janata Dal Party in 1988 and formally joined the BJP in 2004.
(PTI News)
