From recalling the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi to revealing her battle with cancer and explaining why she declined the prime minister's post in 2004, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi's memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, has offered an unusually personal account of her life and India's political history.
Released on Tuesday, the book has triggered a political confrontation between the BJP and the Congress, with the ruling party accusing Gandhi of selectively revisiting historical events to defend the Nehru-Gandhi family, while Congress leaders have dismissed the criticism as an attempt to politicise her personal recollections.
The memoir revisits some of the most contentious episodes in independent India's history, including the 1984 Operation Blue Star, the Emergency, the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Shah Bano controversy and the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement that put the UPA government on the defensive.
It also offers glimpses into the personal tragedies that shaped Gandhi's life, including the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, her initial reluctance to enter politics, her two major cancer-related health scares and the difficult transition from her Italian upbringing to becoming one of India's most influential political figures.
But it is her recollection of the Babri Masjid demolition, particularly her account of breaking down in tears while watching the structure being brought down on December 6, 1992, that has emerged as the biggest political flashpoint.
Revisiting the demolition, Gandhi describes it as a turning point in India's political journey and a demonstration of the growing influence of the BJP-RSS combine.
"There had been for several years clear indications that the BJP-RSS and their affiliates were single-mindedly advancing their divisive agenda. The tragic demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the ensuing spiral of communal violence were definite pointers: Those outfits were no longer going to work behind the scenes. The BJP was drawing closer to its dream of absolute power," she wrote.
The account drew an immediate response from BJP leaders, who questioned why Gandhi had expressed grief over the demolition but, according to them, had not shown comparable concern for Hindu victims, security personnel and victims of terror attacks.
BJP national spokesperson CR Kesavan launched a direct attack, suggesting that the memoir should have been titled Whitewashing instead of Belonging.
"Sonia Gandhi could have titled her memoir 'Whitewashing', instead of 'Belonging', because the motive of this book appears to be sugarcoating the historical wrongs perpetrated by the Nehru-Gandhi family and camouflaging the cardinal sins committed by the Congress party," he said.
Questioning her account of the demolition, Kesavan invoked the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the Batla House encounter and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
He asked whether Gandhi had shed tears when gurdwaras were attacked and thousands of Sikhs were killed during the 1984 violence, or when security personnel and civilians lost their lives in terror attacks.
Kesavan also accused her of attempting to normalise the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi, during which fundamental rights were suspended and political opponents were jailed.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh intensified the attack, accusing Gandhi of selectively expressing grief over incidents involving different communities.
"Tears only well up in their eyes when incidents like the Babri (Masjid demolition) or the Batla House (encounter) occur--but when an incident like Godhra happens, her tears dry up," Singh said.
Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack, he questioned why Gandhi had not expressed similar grief over the killing of Hindu pilgrims.
Singh also revived the controversy surrounding Gandhi's Italian origins, questioning her account of retaining her Italian passport and alleging that she had taken 12 years to acquire Indian citizenship. He accused her of having no love for India.
Congress leaders, however, countered the BJP by recalling the reactions of its own senior leaders following the demolition.
Congress leader Salman Khurshid said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP veteran LK Advani had also expressed regret over the incident.
Congress MP Rajeev Shukla questioned why the BJP was targeting Gandhi for expressing grief when several of its own senior leaders had condemned the demolition.
"When Babri Masjid was demolished, Atal ji had heavily criticised it. Did Babar live in his heart? Advani ji had called it a grave mistake. Did Babar live in his heart? Jaswant Singh strongly condemned it. Did Babar live in his heart?" he asked.
The BJP's criticism also drew a response from party leader Pothireddy Krishnakanth, who questioned whether Gandhi and the Congress leadership had displayed similar sensitivity towards the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Beyond the Babri controversy, Gandhi uses the memoir to outline what she describes as a fundamental ideological divide between herself and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She argues that their differences are not merely political or personal but concern two contrasting visions of India.
"We come from different ideological worlds; his idea of this country is vastly different from mine. All I learnt about India was assimilated from the members of my family, their lives of service, and their faith in a nation that encompassed a host of races and cultures, languages and faiths, based on principles of liberty and equality for all," she wrote.
Describing Modi's political worldview, she alleged that it had been shaped by the RSS and its ideological understanding of the country.
"Narendra Modi's idea of India was constructed by the ideologues of the RSS and the experience of his own growing up. It affirmed a fundamentalism in which his faith and culture superseded all others. In that India, hierarchy, order, and control are central," she wrote.
"He was fighting for his vision of India, and I for mine: an India against hegemony, an India that stands for inclusiveness, secularism, and social justice," she added.
Gandhi also said that despite Modi having been Prime Minister for more than 12 years, she had practically no meaningful interaction with him. Their exchanges at the end of Parliament sessions, she said, were restricted to formal greetings.
She accused the BJP government of weakening democratic institutions, suppressing dissent and using central investigative agencies against political opponents.
The Enforcement Directorate, she alleged, had become a tool of political vendetta, while the Election Commission had turned into an accomplice in the ruling party's pursuit of power.
She also criticised television news channels, alleging that several had become little more than propaganda arms of the government.
Gandhi also revisits the 2002 Gujarat riots, which broke out after the Godhra train tragedy in which 59 people were killed when coaches of the Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya were set on fire.
"The cause of the fire remains disputed, but the turmoil that followed spread to many parts of the state, and the victims were overwhelmingly Muslims," she wrote.
Recalling the television coverage of the violence, Gandhi said she and other Congress leaders watched the developments in horror and tried to reach party colleagues in Gujarat who were seeking assistance.
"We watched the live reports in horror, and tried to get help to our colleagues in Gujarat who were calling us in desperation, but the administration failed to respond," she wrote.
She accused sections of the BJP and RSS, including the Bajrang Dal, of fuelling the violence and alleged that the RSS was preparing the ground for Modi's emergence as a national political leader while he was Gujarat Chief Minister.
Her criticism of the RSS extends to the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement, which she alleged was covertly organised and supported by the BJP and RSS to weaken the Congress-led UPA government.
"In 2012 a well-known activist from Maharashtra, Baburao 'Anna' Hazare, emerged as the figurehead of a movement that titled itself 'India Against Corruption'. Some of its prominent participants have stated since that it was covertly organised and supported by the BJP and RSS," she wrote.
The movement, which brought together activists and public figures, drew large crowds and put the UPA government on the defensive amid allegations of corruption.
Gandhi said the Congress found itself struggling to counter the aggressive campaign and the growing public anger against the government.
She also claimed that the Lokpal mechanism, introduced during the UPA years, had become a "toothless and near-invisible tiger" under the BJP.
Among the most emotional sections of the memoir is Gandhi's account of the assassination of her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
She recalls that the family had lived with the fear of losing Rajiv following the assassination of his mother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, in October 1984.
The couple, she writes, had even discussed their funeral arrangements, fearing that an attack on one could also claim the other's life.
Gandhi recounts a particularly unsettling warning from their son Rahul Gandhi, who had accompanied his father on an election campaign tour.
"If something isn't done about Pa's security, I know I'll soon have to come back for his funeral," Rahul had reportedly told her two months before the assassination.
On the night of May 21, Sonia was at home when daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra informed her about an explosion in Madras, as Chennai was then known.
A woman belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), posing as someone offering a garland, detonated an explosive device during an election rally, killing Rajiv and 14 others.
Gandhi describes being unable to comprehend what Priyanka was telling her and recalls collapsing emotionally as the reality of the assassination sank in.
She also recounts the family's distress over Rajiv's final journey and the arrangements to bring his remains back to Delhi.
The memoir raises questions about the withdrawal of Rajiv's Special Protection Group security cover by the VP Singh government. Gandhi writes that a recommendation to continue the cover was not followed by a fresh threat assessment before it was withdrawn.
She also refers to intelligence inputs about threats to Rajiv that, according to her account, had not been adequately addressed.
In another deeply personal recollection, Gandhi says that her sister later urged her to return to Italy after Rajiv's assassination, fearing that the family could face further violence.
She refused, saying India was her home and that she could not leave the country where her children had grown up.
The assassination, she writes, eventually forced her to confront the possibility of entering public life, despite having spent years resisting political involvement.
The memoir also makes a significant personal disclosure about Gandhi's health, revealing for the first time details of two major cancer-related medical scares in 2010 and 2011.
According to her account, doctors at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital advised her to undergo surgery after breast cancer was detected in 2010.
Although she said she had confidence in the doctors treating her in India, she decided to travel abroad partly to avoid the intense media attention that a major surgery involving the Congress president would attract.
"I felt shaken and worried, there was no time to lose, my children and I were told, and my mind began to race to a possible scary outcome," she wrote.
She underwent surgery at the European Institute of Oncology near Milan, Italy, under renowned surgeon Dr Umberto Veronesi.
Gandhi recalls that her children Rahul and Priyanka were with her before the operation and held her hand as she was taken into the operating theatre.
The surgeon removed two tumours and also performed intra-operative radiation, which she said spared her five weeks of radiotherapy.
However, the ordeal did not end there.
During routine follow-up tests in 2011, doctors detected another growth in her pancreas. The finding came as a shock to Gandhi and her children, who initially feared that the earlier cancer had returned or spread.
She subsequently underwent a second operation in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, under pancreatic surgeon Dr Casper van Eijck.
Gandhi writes that she was anxious about the procedure because the actual nature and extent of the growth could only be established after surgery.
The tumour was found to be at a preliminary, precancerous stage and had been detected early. She remained in hospital for four weeks, with Priyanka spending much of the time by her side.
She also noted that she had been fortunate to avoid chemotherapy after both operations.
The disclosure offers a rare glimpse into the private health struggles of a leader who remained at the centre of national politics during the second UPA government's tenure, even as she sought to keep her medical treatment away from public scrutiny.
Another major political revelation concerns Gandhi's decision to decline the prime ministership after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
For years, the decision has been interpreted through different political narratives, with the BJP repeatedly raising her Italian origins and sections of the Opposition questioning the circumstances surrounding the selection of Manmohan Singh.
In the memoir, Gandhi describes the decision as an intensely personal one, shaped by her own doubts, her family's concerns and her reluctance to take on the responsibility.
"'Sonia, be true to yourself,' I could hear myself say. 'You've always known it. Just leave it!'" she writes, recalling the moment she decided against accepting the post.
She also describes informing Rahul about her decision.
"'I've made up my mind. I'm going to stick to my stand,' I told him. He stepped up to me and with his arms around me said, 'It's the right decision,'" she wrote.
However, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha offered a different political explanation, claiming that her decision was linked to the numbers game and the reluctance of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav to support her candidature.
BJP leaders, meanwhile, alleged that questions surrounding her foreign origin and political acceptability had influenced the decision.
The memoir also revisits Gandhi's relationship with former President Pranab Mukherjee and his reported ambition to become Prime Minister.
Recalling a conversation in 2010, Gandhi said Mukherjee had expressed frustration with then Finance Minister P Chidambaram and suggested that it might be time for a change at the top.
She interpreted the remark as an indication of Mukherjee's long-held desire to occupy the prime minister's post.
His daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee strongly objected to the way the episode was presented, questioning why her father's ambition should have come as a surprise.
She said there was nothing wrong with a politician aspiring to become Prime Minister, particularly after decades of experience in public life and governance.
"My father came from a very humble background. Whatever he achieved in his life was through sheer merit and hard work. There was no one to serve him positions, including PM-ship, on a platter due to dynastic entitlements," she said.
Sharmistha also clarified that her father had not harboured resentment towards Gandhi over the matter.
While Gandhi is sharply critical of the BJP and the RSS, the memoir also revisits episodes that have long complicated the Congress's own political legacy.
On the Shah Bano controversy, she recalls questioning Rajiv Gandhi over his government's decision to bring legislation in 1986 after the Supreme Court ruled that the divorced Muslim woman was entitled to maintenance.
She said she challenged her husband over allegations that the government was sacrificing Muslim women's interests.
According to Gandhi, Rajiv defended his decision by arguing that he was attempting to address a complicated issue involving religious beliefs and women's rights.
She writes that the compromise sought to balance the two, while acknowledging that the legislation overturning the Supreme Court's ruling was widely criticised.
The episode remains significant in the political history of the Congress and the BJP. The decision to enact the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, was widely criticised by those who saw it as a retreat from gender justice and an attempt to appease conservative religious leadership.
The controversy also became an important political opening for the BJP, which subsequently sharpened its campaign around the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the demand for a Uniform Civil Code.
On the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975, Sonia Gandhi acknowledges the damage caused by the suspension of civil liberties and the curbs on political opposition and the press, even as she offers an account of the personal and political circumstances surrounding that period.
Her recollections of Operation Blue Star in June 1984 are equally revealing.
Gandhi describes watching Indira Gandhi view footage of the aftermath of the Army operation at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
"As my mother-in-law watched the slow-moving record, I could see her face wet with tears--tears of pain and regret, I think: sorrow at the manner in which the siege has ended, at the large number of lives lost," she wrote.
The account drew criticism from AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj, who said that any expression of remorse from Indira Gandhi at the time would have carried greater significance.
He also questioned the credibility of the recollection, saying it was hearsay and could not be independently verified.
Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa accused the Gandhi family of shedding "crocodile tears" over the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and alleged that Rajiv Gandhi had rewarded those responsible for the killings.
BJP leader Tarun Chugh also questioned the Congress leadership's position during the Emergency and the anti-Sikh violence.
The criticism highlights how the memoir's attempt to revisit the family's personal experiences has reopened some of the most painful chapters of the Congress's political history.
The memoir's title also carries a personal significance, given the long-running political debate over Gandhi's Italian origins and her place in Indian public life.
Born in Italy, Gandhi moved to India after marrying Rajiv Gandhi in 1968. She recalls her early years in the country, her adjustment to a different culture and her gradual identification with the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Her account of retaining her Italian passport has become another point of political contention, with Giriraj Singh questioning the time she took to acquire Indian citizenship.
Gandhi's larger narrative, however, is about belonging to a country through family, relationships, shared experiences and a sense of duty rather than simply through birthplace.
She also describes the difficult decision to enter active politics in the late 1990s, when the Congress was facing internal divisions and electoral setbacks.
Recalling a period of uncertainty, she says she turned to the Bhagavad Gita and drew inspiration from Krishna's advice to Arjuna to perform one's duty without being preoccupied with the outcome.
"Something awoke in me: I was sure. I had the answer to my own doubts and questions. I had to step out and go where my duty called. And I did," she wrote.
Published by HarperCollins India, Belonging: A Journey of Love traces Gandhi's childhood in post-war Italy, her relationship with Rajiv Gandhi at Cambridge, her entry into the Nehru-Gandhi family and the personal losses that shaped her life.
It also recalls the death of her first child, who was born prematurely, and the discovery of grenades in a room at the family's residence following Operation Blue Star.
The book attempts to place her political journey within the larger story of India's transformation over six decades, from the Congress-dominated political landscape of the late 1960s to the rise of the BJP under Modi.
For Gandhi, the central theme is the idea of an inclusive India shaped by pluralism, secularism and equality. For her critics, however, the memoir is an attempt to present a selective account of the Congress's past while assigning responsibility for the country's political divisions to the BJP and RSS.
The result is a book that has moved beyond the personal recollections of one of India's most influential political figures to become the centre of a wider argument over history, political accountability, national identity and the legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)