Editor's Pick: How a love story developed into a deep belonging to India

In an interview to The Hindu on her soon-to-be-launched book, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sonia Gandhi observed that under the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh dispensation over the last 12 years, "great damage has been done to the fabric of our country, our democracy and our institutions. Even after this government goes, it will take time to restore our systems back to health, and great effort from political parties. People are now beginning to be restless and recognising the damage. But I am optimistic and I know that the people of India will welcome a return to proper governance."

Asked about the decline of the Congress as India's dominant party, the view of some critics that the party has not been able to reverse the declining trend, and its present condition and prospects, the former Congress President responded: "I am not so pessimistic. Consider that the Congress party and other opposition parties have not had a level playing field since this government came to power. Take into account the complete stranglehold they have on all institutions, especially the Election Commission, their control of mainstream media, their money power and their exploitation of religion. Yet, our party is fighting and making progress".

Sonia Gandhi's much-awaited Belonging, published by HarperCollins India, is a personal memoir, with politics providing the background or "a kind of framework," as she puts it in the book.

Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, with whom she shared an exceptionally close bond, are the two central figures in Sonia's story. Asked what, looking back, she saw as their defining qualities and how each shaped her life and outlook, she explained: "When I arrived in India as a young bride, I knew nothing about India. All that I am and know today, I learnt from them. Their courage, their empathy, their commitment to a secular and democratic India and most of all, the pull of duty that was greater than any other for both of them was something that inspired me and held me steadfast during times of difficulty and doubt."

She also responded to questions on the 1997 emergency, the churn within the party in 1999 as she took charge and why she declined the PM post in 2004. Read full interview here

The other important story of the day is 'Ousted voters in 6 States and Delhi can resubmit enumeration forms, says ECI' which reports that absent, shifted and dead voters can submit the enumeration form again to get their names included in the electoral rolls, instead of having to use Form 6, which is meant for registration of first-time voters.

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